SPEECHES, 


CONGRESSIONAL  AND  POLITICAL, 


AND 


OTHER  WRITINGS, 


OP 


EX-GOVERNOR  AARON  V.  BROWN, 


€F  TENNESSEE, 


COLLECTED  AND  ARRANGED  BY  THE  EDITORS  OP  THE  UNION  AND  AMERICAN 


NASHVILLE,  TENN.: 
JOHN  L.  MAILING  AND  CQMFANY, 

1854. 


■ 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 


PAGS- 

Biographical  notice,  from  Livingston's  Memoirs  of  Eminent  Ameri- 
cans,       -..-----.--.  .  j 

PART  I. 

CONGRESSIONAL    SPEECHES. 

Speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Bell,  on  the  Bill  to  Secure  the  Freedom  of 

Elections,  May  19th  and  20th,  1840, 10 

Speech  on  the  Bill  to  Charter  the  Fiscal  Bank  of  the  United  States, 

August  4th,  1841, 37 

Speech  on  remitting  the  fine  on  General  Jackson,  January  8th,  1844,        66 
Speech  on  the  correspondence  of  Mr.  Webster  with  the  British  Min- 
ister, in  relation  to  the  Surrender  of  Alexander  McLeod,  July  9th 

and  10th,  1841, 67 

Speech  on  the  Tariff,  June,  1842, 81 

Speech  on  Abolition  Petitions,  January,  1844,        ....       106 
Speech  on  the  Right  of  Members  Elected  by  General  Ticket  to  their 

Seats,  February,  1844,         -         -         -     -     -        *         -         -  -120 

Speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Adams  on  the  Bill  Establishing  a  Territorial 

Government  for  Oregon,  January  27th,  1845,       -  -       138 

Second  reply  to  Mr.  Adams  on  the  same  Bill,  February  4th,       -        -       147 
Speech  on  the  New  Jersey  Contested  Election,  March  17th,  1840,    -       154 


I,     _/  '.,>  A*  *J  .  *t 


IV.  CONTENTS. 

PART  If. 

POLITICAL  SPEECHES  AND  OTHER  ADDRESSES. 

PAGE 

Speech,  when  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  Governor,  delivered  at 
Athens,  East  Tennessee,  June  21st,  1845,        -  185 

Speech,  when  a  candidate  for  the  same  office  in  1847,      -  204 

Speech  at  Jonesboro',  as  one  of  the  Democratic  Electors  for  the 
State  at  large,  in  the  Presidential  election  between  General  Cass 
and  General  Taylor,  August  24th,  1848, 235 

Speech  in  the  Presidential  election  between  General  Pierce  and 
General  Scott,  at  Columbia,  August  6th,  1852,  -     -      254 

Speech  at  Charleston,  East  Tennessee,  in  same  election,  October, 

1852, 281 

Lecture  on  the  Progress  of  the  United  States  and  the  Slavery  Ques- 
tion, at  Odd  Fellows'  Hall,  Nashville,  in  1850,        -        -        -     -      292 

Letter  to  the  Nashville  Union,  on  the  subject  of  the  approaching 

Southern  Convention,        -         -        -         -        -        -        -        -321 

Letter  to  the  Nashville  Union,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  first 
session  of  the  Southern  Convention,        -  -         -  331 

Speech  at  the  second  session  of  the  Southern  Convention,       -        -      307 

The  Tennessee  Platform,  written  by  Governor  Brown,  reported  by 
Mr.  Nicholson  to  the  Delegates,  and  having  been  adopted,  reported 
by  their  Chairman,  General  Pillow,  to  the  Southern  Convention,  -      319 

Address  to  the  Law  Class  of  the  University  at  Lebanon,  February 

15th,  1853, 346 


va 


CONTENTS.  V. 

'mm'\  PART  III. 

MESSAGES,  REPORTS,    AND    OTHER   MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

PAGB 

Inaugural  Address  on  his  installation  as  Governor  of  Tennessee,  in 
1845, 365 

Message  to  the  General  Assembly  in  1845, 375 

Proclamation  for  Volunteers  in  1846, 388 

Address  to  the  Eirst  Regiment,  transferring  it  to  the  United  States,       394 

Message  of  1847, 423 

Resolutions  of  1827,  introduced  into  the  Tennessee  Legislature,  in 

relation  to  the  defeat  of  General  Jackson,  in  the  election  of  1824,      427 
Speech  in  support  of  the  same,      ------.      435 

Address  of  the  Giles  County  Committee  (prepared  by  Gov.  Brown,) 
in  the  Presidential  election  of  1836,  between  Mr.  Van  Buren,  Gen. 
Harrison  and  Judge  White,        ------  -      443 

Address  to  his  constituents  in  1842,  reviewing  the  measures  of  the 
Whig  party  at  the  called  session  of  1841,  and  the  regular  session 

of  1842, 466 

Reply  to  Mr.  Benton,  on  the  True  Origin  of  the  Movement  for  the 

Annexation  of  Texas, -      493 

Reply  to  Mr.  Adams,  complaining  of  the  publication  of  General 

Jackson's  letter  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,        -        -    -      499 
The  same  subject  continued,    --------      517 

Speech  in  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  against  abolishing  the  Cir- 
cuit and  Supreme  Courts,    --------      524 

Speech  to  his  constituents,  on  his  return  from  the  called  session  of  the 

Legislature  of  1832, 533 

.  Letter  to  the  New  Orleans  Railroad  Convention,  -  -  -  -  544 
Report  in  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  on  Free  Persons  of  Color,  -  549 
Report  against  Capital  Punishments, 557 


*-m 


f*+ 


wm 


mmw 

5 "  *    ■' 

1 *•  $ij$*., 

*%• 

* 

>■■, 

r# 

* 

>m 

#k- 

0 

*/Tl'.               ■**«* 

'MM 

PREFACE. 

llM 

• 

r'-jl 

-TO 


The  object  of  the  present  publication,  is  to  collect,  into 
one  volume,  the  principal  speeches  and  writings  of  Gov. 
Brown,  for  better  preservation  by  his  friends,  and  for  more 
easy  access  by  all  who,  at  any  time,  may  wish  to  make  refer- 
ence to  them.  '::  * 

They  cover  a  space  of  many  years,  and  embrace  all  the 
controverted  questions  of  public  policy,  State  and  national, 
from  the  first  canvass  of  General  Jackson  for  the  Presidency, 
to  the  present  time.  Their  publication,  we  believe,  will  pre- 
sent the  most  condensed  and  accurate  record  of  the  party 
struggles  of  this  State,  any  where  to  be  met  with,  and  must, 
therefore,  prove  an  acceptable  work  to  the  public  at  large. 
To  the  younger  politicians  of  both  parties,  who  desire  to  be 
familiar  with  the  past,  as  well  as  the  present  political  history 
of  the  State,  it  must  be  invaluable. 

**!&&'"  + 
THE  EDITORS. 


i 


3sK 


'  •* 


» •'■» 


.4 


^fe 


* 


■*„    m 


ffihi 


J  -  3       ., 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH- 


Aaron  V.  Brown,  late  Governor  of  Tennessee,  was  born  on  the  15th  of 
August,  1795,  in  the  county  of  Brunswick,  Virginia.  His  father,  the  Rev. 
Aaron  Brown;,  enlisted,  when  not  yet  of  lawful  age,  for  three  years  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary army.  He  was  in  the  battle  of  Trenton,  and  participated  in  that 
ever-memorable  march  through  the  Jerseys,  where  the  course  of  the  American 
army  was  known  to  the  enemy  by  the  blood  of  its  bare-footed  soldiery.  He 
was  also  one  of  the  sufferers  in  the  encampment,  at  Yalley  Forge,  during  the 
severe  winter  of  1777-8,  where  disease,  and  famine,  and  nakedness,  so  often 
drew  tears  from  the  illustrious  Washington.  At  the  close  of  his  term  of  ser- 
vice, he  returned  to  the  county  of  Brunswick,  where  he  continued  to  reside  for 
nearly  forty  years  in  the  midst  of  those  who  had  witnessed  his  early  and  patri- 
otic career,  respected  and  beloved  by  all  as  a  faithful  and  useful  minister  of  the 
gospel,  of  the  Methodist  persuasion ;  an  upright  civil  magistrate,  a  staunch  re- 
publican of  the  old  Jefferson  school,  and  an  honest  man.  The  subject  of  this 
memoir  was  the  issue  of  his  second  marriage,  with  Elizabeth  Melton,  (corrup- 
ted from  Milton,)  of  Northampton  county,  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

Except  in  the  simplest  elements,  Gov.  Brown  was  educated  in  the  last-men- 
tioned State.  He  was  sent  when  very  young  to  Westrayville  Academy,  in  the 
county  of  Nash,  in  order  to  be  placed  under  the  care  of  Mr.  John  Bobbitt, 
one  of  the  best  scholars  and  teachers  of  the  time.  After  continuing  here  for 
two  years,  he  was  transferred,  in  the  year  1812,  to  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  at  Chapel  Hill.  He  graduated  in  this  institution,  in  1814,  in  a  large 
class,  of  which  Senator  Mangum  and  ex-Governor  Manley,  of  North  Carolina 
were  also  members.  The  duty  was  assigned  to  him  by  the  faculty,  and  confirm- 
ed by  the  trustees,  of  delivering  the  valedictory  oration  on  commencement  day, 
and  the  service  was  performed  in  a  manner  which  produced  the  most  striking 
impression  on  the  large  assembly  then  in  attendance.  The  collegiate  career  of 
but  few  young  men  is  marked  by  incidents  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  recited 
in  a  notice  like  this.  Industry  in  preparing  for  and  punctuality  in  attending  at 
the  hour  of  recitation,  as  well  as  the  most  cheerful  conformity  to  the  rules 
of  the  institution,  were  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  his  educational 
course. 

Having  finished  his  educational  course,  Gov.  Brown  returned  to  his  parents, 
who  in  the  previous  year,  had  removed  to  the  county  of  Giles,  in  the  State  of 
Tennessee.    About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1815,  he  commenced  the  study 

2 


2  ?lOG$APinCAL   SKETCH. 

of  law  *ih  thV  office  of  the  late  Judge  Trimble,  in  the  town  of  Nashville. 
With  this  gentleman  he  continued  to  read  for  two  years,  and  now  often  refers 
to  him  as  one  of  the  most  systematic,  able  and  upright  men  he  ever  knew. 
Having  obtained  a  license,  he  opened  an  office  in  Nashville,  and  commenced 
practice  in  that  city  with  the  most  flattering  prospects  of  success.  About 
this  time,  however,  Alfred  M.  Harris,  who  was  engaged  in  a  very  extensive 
practice  in  nearly  all  the  southern  counties  of  Middle  Tennessee,  accepted  a 
place  on  the  bench,  and  solicited  Gov.  Brown  to  remove  to  the  county  of  Giles 
and  close  up  his  extensive  business  for  him.  The  opportunity  was  inviting, 
and  that  being  the  residence  of  his  now  aged  parents,  he  determined  to  settle 
in  that  county.  Taking  charge  at  once  of  an  extensive  practice,  both  civil 
and  criminal,  including  the  land  litigation,  then  an  important  and  almost  dis- 
tinctive branch  of  the  profession,  Gov.  Brown  found  all  the  resources  of  his 
mind  brought  into  immediate  requisition.  No  time  was  to  be  lost  in  idleness 
— none  to  be  devoted  to  pleasure.  We  remember  that  one  of  his  maxims 
about  this  period  was,  "  Always  to  be  first  at  court,  and  never  to  leave  it  until 
the  adjourning  order  was  made. "  Under  such  habits  it  was  no  matter  of  sur- 
prise to  those  who  observed  them,  that  there  were  but  few  causes  of  importance 
in  the  counties  in  which  he  practised,  in  which  he  was  not  engaged. 

In  a  few  years  after  Gov.  Brown  commenced  his  career  in  Giles,  the  late 
President  Polk  commenced  his  in  Columbia,  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Maury. 
They  soon  formed  a  partnership  in  their  profession,  thereby  extending  the 
field  of  their  professional  labors  into  more  counties  than  they  could  have  done 
without  that  arrangement.  This  partnership  continued  for  several  years,  and 
until  Mr.  Polk  engaged  in  his  congressional  career.  Its  dissolution  brought 
no  termination  to  that  cordial  friendship,  personal  and  political,  in  which  it  had 
commenced,  and  which  continued  unabated  until  the  death  of  the  late  lamented 
president.  Gov.  Brown  continued  engaged  in  his  profession  until  the  year 
1839,  when,  having  been  elected  to  Congress,  he  gave  it  up  altogether.  Much 
of  the  time  in  which  he  was.  in  regular  and  full  practice  he  was  also  a  member  of 
one  branch  or  the  other  of  the  state  legislature.  This  service  being  near  home, 
and  the  counties  he  represented  being  those  in  which  he  practised,  produced  no 
material  impediment  to  the  progress  of  his  professional  business.  But  the 
case  was  different  in  the  distant  service  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
Gov.  Brown  served  as  a  senator,  from  the  counties  of  Lincoln  and  Giles,  at 
all  the  sessions  of  the  legislature,  regular  and  called,  from  1821  to  1827,  inclu- 
sive, except  the  session  of  1825,  when  he  was  not  a  candidate.  In  the  session 
of  1831  and  1832,  he  was  the  representative  of  the  county  of  Giles  in  the  other 
branch  of  the  general  assembly.  His  course  was  distinguished  at  all  times,  as 
a  legislator  for  the  state,  for  his  determination  to  sustain  an  independent  and 
able  judiciary,  and  to  build  up  an  enlightened,  liberal,  and  impartial  system  of 
jurisprudence  in  the  state ;  and,  we  hazard  nothing  in  saying,  that,  in  searching 
through  the  statutes,  one  will  find  more  laws  of  a  general  and  permanent  na- 
ture which  emanated  from  him  than  from  any  one  of  the  other  public  men  of 
the  state.  He  was  longer  in  that  service,  and,  by  professionalexperience,  may 
be  presumed  to  have  understood  the  defects  of  existing  laws,  and  how  to  rem- 
edy them,    Throughout  his  service  in  the  legislature  he  evinced  a  strong  dispo- 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  * 

sition  to  diminish  the  number  of  offences  which  should  be  capitally  punished. 
He  did  not  propose  or  wish  to  abolish  such  punishments  altogether,  but  only  to 
reduce  and  limit  them  down  to  the  smallest  possible  number  of  cases,  consis- 
tent with  the  necessary  self-defence  of  society  against  the  aggressions  of  the 
lawless  and  abandoned.  At  the  session  of  1831-32,  by  the  order  of  the  judi- 
ciary committee,  he  prepared  an  elaborate  and  able  report,  which  he  submitted 
to  the  house,  on  the  subject  of  capital  punishments,  which  attracted  great  at- 
tention throughout  the  Union. 

Gov.  Brown  first  became  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1839.  At  two  for- 
mer elections  the  whigs  had  carried  his  district  by  majorities  ranging  from  ele- 
ven to  twelve  hundred  votes.  His  competitor,  the  Hon.  E.  J.  Shields,  had 
served  in  the  two  preceding  Congresses.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  fine  talents, 
and  one  of  the  most  plausible  and  handsome  debaters  of  his  party.  When  the 
election  came  off,  however,  Gov.  Brown  was  found  not  only  to  have  overcome 
the  large  party  majority  against  him,  but  to  have  overcome  it  by  the  immense 
majority  of  sixteen  hundred  and  one  votes.  He  was  re-elected  for  the  called 
session  of  Congress  in  1841,  without  having  any  opposition.  In  1843,  the 
congressional  district  was  altered  so  as  greatly  to  diminish  the  democratic  ma- 
jority by  which  Gov.  Brown  had  been  usually  elected  in  the  old  district.  This 
induced  hopes  that  he  might  possibly  be  beaten  in  the  new  one,  and  all  the  regu- 
lar steps  were  taken  to  present  a  competitor  in  the  person  of  the  Hon.  N.  S 
Brown,  now  minister  to  Russia.  The  result,  however,  demonstrated  that  the. 
democracy  of  the  new  district,  although  not  in  so  large  a  majority  as  in  the 
old  one,  was  nevertheless  equally  invincible. 

During  the  period  of  his  congressional  service,  beginning  in  1839  and  ending 
in  1845,  Gov.  Brown  seems  to  have  been  an  active  member,  taking  a  part  in 
nearly  all  the  great  questions  which  came  up  during  that  eventful  portion  of 
our  political  history. 

In  May,  1840,  he  delivered  a  speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Bell,  on  the  bill  intro- 
duced by  that  gentleman,  "  to  secure  the  freedom  of  elections. "  He  also  made 
a  speech  on  the  celebrated  New-Jersey  case,  having  been  a  member  of  the 
committee  which  reported  on  the  same.  His  speech  on  the  burning  of  the 
Caroline,  to  be  found  in  the  Congressional  Globe  and  appendix  of  1841,  was 
listened  to  by  the  house  with  profound  attention  and  emotion,  and  is  regarded  by 
his  friends  as  one  of  his  ablest  efforts  in  Congress.  He  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee which  framed  the  tariff  of  1842,  and  united  with  the  minority  in  presen- 
ting a  report  against  the  principles  and  details  of  that  measure.  "When  the 
bill  came  up  for  discussion,  Gov.  Brown  made  a  clear  and  powerful  argument 
against  it,  opening  the  debate  on  the  democratic  side  of  the  house.  On  the 
4th  of  August,  1841,  he  delivered  a  speech  against  the  fiscal  bank  bill,  which 
occupied  so  large  a  portion  of  public  solicitude  at  that  time.  He  made  speeches 
in  1844  on  the  remission  of  the  fine  imposed  on  Gen.  Jackson  at  New-Orleans, 
and  against  receiving  and  reporting  on  abolition  petitions ;  also,  on  the  right 
of  members  elected  by  general  ticket  to  their  seats. 

It  was  in  December,  1844,  that  Gov.  Brown  found  it  necessary  to  reply  to 
sundry  speeches  of  Mr.  Adams,  made  in  Massachusetts,  in  relation  to  the  ne- 
gotiation of  the  Florida  treaty.     That  reply  having  a  direct  reference  to  in- 


2  BIOGflAPITICAL  SKETCH. 

of  law  "in  the'  office  of  the  late  Judge  Trimble,  in  the  town  of  Nashville. 
With  this  gentleman  he  continued  to  read  for  two  years,  and  now  often  refers 
to  him  as  one  of  the  most  systematic,  able  and  upright  men  he  ever  knew. 
Having  obtained  a  license,  he  opened  an  office  in  Nashville,  and  commenced 
practice  in  that  city  with  the  most  flattering  prospects  of  success.  About 
this  time,  however,  Alfred  M.  Harris,  who  was  engaged  in  a  very  extensive 
practice  in  nearly  all  the  southern  counties  of  Middle  Tennessee,  accepted  a 
place  on  the  bench,  and  solicited  Gov.  Brown  to  remove  to  the  county  of  Giles 
and  close  up  his  extensive  business  for  him.  The  opportunity  was  inviting, 
and  that  being  the  residence  of  his  now  aged  parents,  he  determined  to  settle 
in  that  county.  Taking  charge  at  once  of  an  extensive  practice,  both  civil 
and  criminal,  including  the  land  litigation,  then  an  important  and  almost  dis- 
tinctive branch  of  the  profession,  Gov.  Brown  found  all  the  resources  of  his 
mind  brought  into  immediate  requisition.  No  time  was  to  be  lost  in  idleness 
— none  to  be  devoted  to  pleasure.  We  remember  that  one  of  his  maxims 
about  this  period  was,  "  Always  to  be  first  at  court,  and  never  to  leave  it  until 
the  adjourning  order  was  made. "  Under  such  habits  it  was  no  matter  of  sur- 
prise to  those  who  observed  them,  that  there  were  but  few  causes  of  importance 
in  the  counties  in  which  he  practised,  in  which  he  was  not  engaged. 

In  a  few  years  after  Gov.  Brown  commenced  his  career  in  Giles,  the  late 
President  Polk  commenced  his  in  Columbia,  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Maury. 
They  soon  formed  a  partnership  in  their  profession,  thereby  extending  the 
field  of  their  professional  labors  into  more  counties  than  they  could  have  done 
without  that  arrangement.  This  partnership  continued  for  several  years,  and 
until  Mr.  Polk  engaged  in  his  congressional  career.  Its  dissolution  brought 
no  termination  to  that  cordial  friendship,  personal  and  political,  in  which  it  had 
commenced,  and  which  continued  unabated  until  the  death  of  the  late  lamented 
president.  Gov.  Brown  continued  engaged  in  his  profession  until  the  year 
1839,  when,  having  been  elected  to  Congress,  he  gave  it  up  altogether.  Much 
of  the  time  in  which  he  was.  in  regular  and  full  practice  he  was  also  a  member  of 
one  branch  or  the  other  of  the  state  legislature.  This  service  being  near  home, 
and  the  counties  he  represented  being  those  in  which  he  practised,  produced  no 
material  impediment  to  the  progress  of  his  professional  business.  But  the 
case  was  different  in  the  distant  service  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
Gov.  Brown  served  as  a  senator,  from  the  counties  of  Lincoln  and  Giles,  at 
all  the  sessions  of  the  legislature,  regular  and  called,  from  1821  to  1827,  inclu- 
sive, except  the  session  of  1825,  when  he  was  not  a  candidate.  In  the  session 
of  1831  and  1832,  he  was  the  representative  of  the  county  of  Giles  in  the  other 
branch  of  the  general  assembly.  His  course  was  distinguished  at  all  times,  as 
a  legislator  for  the  state,  for  his  determination  to  sustain  an  independent  and 
able  judiciary,  and  to  build  up  an  enlightened,  liberal,  and  impartial  system  of 
jurisprudence  in  the  state ;  and,  we  hazard  nothing  in  saying,  that,  in  searching 
through  the  statutes,  one  will  find  more  laws  of  a  general  and  permanent  na- 
ture which  emanated  from  him  than  from  any  one  of  the  other  public  men  of 
the  state.  He  was  longer  in  that  service,  and,  by  professionalexperience,  may 
be  presumed  to  have  understood  the  defects  of  existing  laws,  and  how  to  rem- 
edy them.    Throughout  his  service  in  the  legislature  he  evinced  a  strong  dispo- 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  3 

sition  to  diminish  the  number  of  offences  which  should  be  capitally  punished. 
He  did  not  propose  or  wish  to  abolish  such  punishments  altogether,  but  only  to 
reduce  and  limit  them  down  to  the  smallest  possible  number  of  cases,  consis- 
tent with  the  necessary  self-defence  of  society  against  the  aggressions  of  the 
lawless  and  abandoned.  At  the  session  of  1831-32,  by  the  order  of  the  judi- 
ciary committee,  he  prepared  an  elaborate  and  able  report,  which  he  submitted 
to  the  house,  on  the  subject  of  capital  punishments,  which  attracted  great  at- 
tention throughout  the  Union. 

Gov.  Brown  first  became  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1839.  At  two  for- 
mer elections  the  whigs  had  carried  his  district  by  majorities  ranging  from  ele- 
ven to  twelve  hundred  votes.  His  competitor,  the  Hon.  E.  J.  Shields,  had 
served  in  the  two  preceding  Congresses.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  fine  talents, 
and  one  of  the  most  plausible  and  handsome  debaters  of  his  party.  When  the 
election  came  off,  however,  Gov.  Brown  was  found  not  only  to  have  overcome 
the  large  party  majority  against  him,  but  to  have  overcome  it  by  the  immense 
majority  of  sixteen  hundred  and  one  votes.  He  was  re-elected  for  the  called 
session  of  Congress  in  1841,  without  having  any  opposition.  In  1843,  the 
congressional  district  was  altered  so  as  greatly  to  diminish  the  democratic  ma- 
jority by  which  Gov.  Brown  had  been  usually  elected  in  the  old  district.  This 
induced  hopes  that  he  might  possibly  be  beaten  in  the  new  one,  and  all  the  regu- 
lar steps  were  taken  to  present  a  competitor  in  the  person  of  the  Hon.  IS".  S 
Brown,  now  minister  to  Russia.  The  result,  however,  demonstrated  that  the. 
democracy  of  the  new  district,  although  not  in  so  large  a  majority  as  in  the 
old  one,  was  nevertheless  equally  invincible. 

During  the  period  of  his  congressional  service,  beginning  in  1839  and  ending 
in  1845,  Gov.  Brown  seems  to  have  been  an  active  member,  taking  a  part  in 
nearly  all  the  great  questions  which  came  up  during  that  eventful  portion  of 
our  political  history. 

In  May,  1840,  he  delivered  a  speech  in  reply  to  Mr.  Bell,  on  the  bill  intro- 
duced by  that  gentleman,  "  to  secure  the  freedom  of  elections. "  He  also  made 
a  speech  on  the  celebrated  New-Jersey  case,  having  been  a  member  of  the 
committee  which  reported  on  the  same.  His  speech  on  the  burning  of  the 
Caroline,  to  be  found  in  the  Congressional  Globe  and  appendix  of  1841,  was 
listened  to  by  the  house  with  profound  attention  and  emotion,  and  is  regarded  by 
his  friends  as  one  of  his  ablest  efforts  in  Congress.  He  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee which  framed  the  tariff  of  1842,  and  united  with  the  minority  in  presen- 
ting a  report  against  the  principles  and  details  of  that  measure.  When  the 
bill  came  up  for  discussion,  Gov.  Brown  made  a  clear  and  powerful  argument 
against  it,  opening  the  debate  on  the  democratic  side  of  the  house.  On  the 
4th  of  August,  1841,  he  delivered  a  speech  against  the  fiscal  bank  bill,  which 
occupied  so  large  a  portion  of  public  solicitude  at  that  time.  He  made  speeches 
in  1844  on  the  remission  of  the  fine  imposed  on  Gen.  Jackson  at  New-Orleans, 
and  against  receiving  and  reporting  on  abolition  petitions ;  also,  on  the  right 
of  members  elected  by  general  ticket  to  their  seats. 

It  was  in  December,  1844,  that  Gov.  Brown  found  it  necessary  to  reply  to 
sundry  speeches  of  Mr.  Adams,  made  in  Massachusetts,  in  relation  to  the  ne- 
gotiation of  the  Florida  treaty.     That  reply  having  a  direct  reference  to  in- 


4  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

1  oidents  occurring  in  the  congressional  career  of  Gov.  Brown,  may  be  seen  in 
the  Daily  Globe  of  December  14, 1844.  A  reply  to  Mr.  Adams,  on  the  Ore- 
gon bill,  may  be  seen  in  the  "  Constitution  "  of  January  29,  1845,  and  also  a 
reply  to  another  speech  of  Mr.  Adams  may  be  seen  in  the  National  Intelligencer 
of  February  3, 1845. 

On  the  12th  March,  1844,  Gov.  Brown,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
territories,  reported  a  bill  to  extend  the  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction  of  the 
several  courts  of  the  territory  of  Iowa  over  the  territory  of  Oregon,  and  for 
other  purposes.  At  the  next  session  he  reported  another  bill,  organizing  a 
territorial  government  for  Oregon,  which  passed  the  house  by  a  large  majority, 
but  was  lost  in  the  senate. 

Governor  Brown's  service  in  Congress  ended  with  the  commencement  of 
President  Polk's  administration.  He  declined  any  office  under  the  adminis- 
tration, and  determined  to  return  home  and  devote  himself  to  the  education  of 
hi3  children  and  the  management  of  his  own  private  affairs.  Before  he  reached 
home,  however,  he  was  nominated  by  the  democratic  party  as  its  candidate  for 
governor.  Pie  met  the  news  of  this  nomination  at  Pittsburg,  and  hesitated 
many  days  whether  he  would  accept  it  or  not.  It  conflicted  with  all  his  pur- 
poses to  retire  to  private  life  to  accept  it,  and  opened  a  wide  field  of  labor 
with  but  little  prospect  of  success.  Mr.  Polk  had  failed  twice  for  the  same 
office,  and  could  not  carry  the  state  in  his  presidential  race,  under  all  the  zeal 
and  excitement  which  it  created.  Besides  this,  Mr.  Polk,  in  organizing  his 
administration,  and  selecting  his  friends  for  different  offices,  had  withdrawn 
from  the  state  some  of  the  most  influential  and  powerful  members  of  the  party. 
He  himself,  was  gone,  Hon.  Cave  Johnson  was  gone,  General  Robert  Arm- 
strong was  gone,  and  several  others  whose  weight  had  been  always  felt  in  state 
elections.  Discouraging,  however,  as  were  the  prospects,  he  finally  determined 
to  take  the  field  against  Col.  Foster,  a  late  senator,  and  one  of  the  most  popular 
and  able  men  of  the  whig  party.  The  discussion  of  the  canvass  turned  chiefly 
on  the  tariff,  the  Texas  and  Oregon  questions. 

In  this  canvass  Gov.  Brown  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  one  thousand  five 
hundred  or  one  thousand  six  hundred  ;  but  in  that  of  1847,  he  was  defeated  by 
about  half  that  number.  For  the  last  twelve  years  parties  have  been  so  nearly 
balanced  in  Tennessee  that  they  have  carried  the  state  alternately  against  each 
other.  The  one  last  defeated  brings  to  the  polls  at  the  next  election  a  little 
more  zeal  and  determination  to  retrieve  their  last  misfortune,  and  are  therefore 
very  apt  to  prove  triumphant. 

In  the  next  year,  1848,  Gov.  Brown  was  a  candidate  for  elector  for  the  state 
at  large,  and  canvassed  it  with  great  vigor,  sustaining  and  even  surpassing  the 
reputation  which  he  had  previously  acquired. 

In  1850,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Southern  Convention  held  at  Nashville. 
'  He  concurred  fully  in  the  resolutions  passed  at  the  first  session  of  that  body, 
but  dissented  from  and  protested  against  the  address.  At  the  second  session  of 
that  body  in  November  following,  Gov.  Brown  dissented  altogether  from  the 
report  submitted  by  the  committee  on  resolutions ;  and,  to  exhibit  his  own 
views  and  those  of  the  democracy  of  the  state,  prepared  what  was  called  and 
known  as  the  Tennessee  Platform,  which,  after  being  submitted  to  the  delega- 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  o 

tion  of  the  state  and  being  approved  by  them,  was  by  their  order  submitted  by 
General  Pillow  to  the  convention.  His  whole  course  at  both  sessions  was  emi" 
nently  conservative.  At  neither  session,  and  at  no  stage  of  the  slavery  agita- 
tion, would  he  hear  or  think  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  He  considered 
secession  or  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  as  no  remedy  for  alleged  grievances. — 
His  favorite  remedy  against  the  whole  series  of  aggressions  was  retaliation,  as 
set  forth  in  the  Tennessee  Platform-  This  he  believed  would  soon  exhibit  to 
the  North  a  greater  power  to  injure  them  than  they  have  had  to  injure  the 
South ;  and  that,  upon  the  simple  principle  of  self-interest,  both  sections  would 
presently  cease  the  profitless  controversy. 

The  last  public  station  which  Gov.  Brown  has  occupied  was  that  of  a  dele- 
gate from  the  state  at  large  in  the  late  Baltimore  convention.  He  introduced 
a  very  important  resolution  into  that  body,  raising  a  committee  of  one  from 
each  state,  to  be  appointed  by  the  delegates  from  each  state,  to  whom  all  reso- 
lutions relative  to  the  principles  or  platform  of  the  democratic  party  should  be 
referred  without  debate.  The  importance  of  such  a  reference,  without  debate, 
was  instantly  perceived,  and  the  resolution  was  adopted.  He  was  unanimously 
appointed  the  chairman,  and  subsequently  reported  the  platform,  which  has 
given  such  general  satisfaction  to  his  party  in  every  portion  of  the  United 
States.  Gov.  Brown  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  concurrence  of  his  party 
in  the  platforms  which,  at  different  times,  he  has  prepared  for  them.  He  was 
the  author  of  the  Tennessee  platform  in  the  Southern  Convention.  He  pre- 
pared and  presented  the  platform  which  was  unanimously  sanctioned  in  the 
convention  at  Nashville,  on  which  the  last  gubernatorial  battle  was  fought  in 
Tennessee ;  and  that  he  had  the  honor  assigned  to  him  of  reporting  the  national 
platform  of  democratic  principles  at  the  late  convention  was  highly  gratifying 
to  his  numerous  friends. 


PAET    I. 


CONGRESSIONAL    SPEECHES. 


PART   I 


CONGRESSIONAL    SPEECHES. 


SPEECH. 

On  the  Bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Bell,  to  Secure  the  Freedom  of 
Elections,  and  to  provide  for  the  Faithful  Administration  of 
the  Executive  Patronage.  House  of  Representatives ,  May 
19th  and  20th,  1840. 


Mr.  Brown  having  obtained  the  floor,  said : 

He  had  listened  with  profound  attention  to  the  arguments  of 
both  his  colleagues  (Mr.  Gentry  and  Mr.  Bell,)  in  favor  of  this 
bill.  He  had  done  so,  because  he  was  desirous  to  know  on 
what  new  statement  of  facts,  or  by  what  new  process  of  rea- 
soning, this  odious  measure  was  now  to  be  revived,  and  again 
pressed  on  the  consideration  of  the  public,  after  its  signal  fail^ 
ure  in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol,  and  after  that  deep  and 
decided  reprobation  of  it  which  had  been  manifested  in  so 
many  of  the  elections  of  this  country.  He  was  particularly 
anxious  to  discover  whether  misfortunes  had  not  subdued,  or 
at  least  chastened  and  softened  down,  some  of  those  fierce  and 
angry  passions  with  which  it  was  first  advocated ;  misfortunes 
that  have  fallen  with  peculiar  force  on  those  gentlemen's  own 
personal  and  political  friends.  One  of  them  (Mr.  Bell,)  a  few 
weeks  since,  on  the  Cumberland  road  bill,  gave  us  a  most 
touching  and  eloquent  description  of  those  misfortunes.  "He 
had  seen  (said  he,)  during  the  last  summer,  one  friend  after 
another  dropping  around  him,"  until  that  proud  and  exulting 
majority  by  which  he  used  to  be  surrounded  on  this  floor  from 
his  own  State,  was  now  sadly  reduced  to  a  solitary  unit.  Look- 
ing at  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol,  he  might  have  told  us  that 
this  mortality  among  his  friends  had  been  still  greater;  there, 
nothing  was  to  be  met  with  but  one  entire  and  perfect  scene  of 
desolation  and  defeat.     Sir  (said  Mr.  Brown,)  I  was  anxious 


10  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

to  observe  that  gentleman,  when  he  should  walk  forth  amid  the 
ruins  which  this  very  bill  had  so  mainly  contributed  to  spread 
around  him.  I  sincerely  hoped  that  a  contemplation  of  them 
might  induce  him  to  pause,  and  hesitate,  and  finally  to  abandon 
a  measure  which  has  heretofore  produced  such  fatal  results. 
But,  sir,  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say,  what  many  persons  have 
observed  before,  that  misfortunes,  when  they  fail  to  reform,  are 
almost  sure  to  harden  us ;  and  that  even  the  dispensations  of 
Providence,  when  not  rightly  improved,  often  superadd  to  our 
desperation,  and  plunge  us  still  deeper  into  those  vices  and 
follies  which  they  were  intended  to  reform. 

I  do  not  intend  to  apply  such  observations  as  these  to  the 
gentleman's  course  generally  in  this  House.  I  have  had  fre- 
quent occasions  not  only  to  approve,  but  even  to  applaud,  his 
calm  and  dignified  mode  of  argument,  during  the  disorders  and 
tumults  of  the  session.  But,  sir,  I  do  mean  to  say,  that,  on 
this  particular  subject  and  its  kindred  ones,  the  gentleman 
never  fails  to  lose  his  equanimity  of  temper,  and  to  expose 
himself  to  the  imputation  of  being  governed  more  by  the  sug- 
gestions of  passion,  than  guided  by  the  dictates  of  reason,  or 
the  honest  convictions  of  opinion.  In  much  of  that  argument 
to  which  I  wish  now  to  reply,  the  gentleman  seemed  determined 
to  have  no  compeer,  in  bold  denunciation,  in  reckless  invective, 
in  wild  and  furious  declamation.  He  seemed  to  imagine  that 
he  had  driven  Democracy  into  its  last  fortress,  and  that  he  was 
then  making  a  bold  and  heroic  charge,  that  was  to  demolish  it 
for  ever;  or,  to  use  his  more  sanguinary  mode  of  expression, 
"  he  was  striking  a  deadly  blow  at  the  life-blood  of  the  party 
— that  vile,  corrupt,  and  infamous  party  which  had  so  long 
ruled  the  destinies  of  this  country."  But,  sir,  the  democratic 
party  of  this  country  was  not  let  off  with  even  such  denuncia- 
tions as  these.  The  gentleman  (Mr.  Bell,)  became  so  far  trans- 
ported as  to  compare  it  to  that  fabled  monster,  the  Parisian  vam- 
pire, that  subsisted  "by  sucking  the  blood  from  the  warm  and  beat- 
ing arteries  of  sleeping  innocence."  He  described  the  end  and 
destruction  of  that  unnatural  monster,  and  declared  that  he 
could  see  in  that  end  the  writhing  and  expiring  contortions  of 
the  putrid  and  bloated  carcass  of  democracy.  Sir,  I  allude 
to  these  extravaganzas  in  the  speech  of  my  honorable  colleague, 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  1 1 

in  order  to  assure  him  that,  in  my  humble  judgment,  great  as 
are  his  powers  of  description  and  comparison,  no  one  but  him- 
self could  see  the  slightest  resemblance  in  this  imaginary  pic- 
ture. No.  If  you  wish  to  see  a  resemblance  of  that  Parisian 
monster,  go  find  it  in  that  proud  and  bloated  aristocracy  that 
has  so  long  fed  and  fattened  on  the  people  of  this  country. 
Go  find  it  in  that  system  of  associated  wealth  and  exclusive 
privilege,  in  all  its  odious  forms  and  varieties,  which  has  been 
so  long  consuming  our  substance,  and  which  is  now  beginning  to 
crumble  beneath  its  own  magnitude,  and  to  expire  in  the  midst 
of  its  own  rottenness  and  corruption. 

But,  Mr.    Speaker,  I  do  not  mean  to  content  myself  with 
making  general  observations  like  these  against  the  present  bill. 
It  was  introduced  originally  about  three  years  ago,  notoriously 
with  the  view  of  breaking  down  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
Union.     But  more  especially  was  it  intended  to  break  down  the 
Jackson  or  Democratic  party  in  the  State  of  Tennessee.     It  is 
now  revived  evidently  for  the  same  purpose,  and  was  pressed 
upon  this  House  in  a  tone  of  exultation  and  defiance  which 
seemed  at  the  time  as  though  it  was  intended  to  provoke  and  chal- 
lenge a  reply.     Sir,  I  do  not  feel  especially  called  on  to  repel 
attacks  made  against  the  Democratic  party  generally.     I  have 
no  connexion  with  that  party  sufficiently  notorious  to  justify  me 
in  presuming  to  become  her  champion.      In  my  own  State, 
however,  that  connexion  is  not  quite  so  obscure  and  unknown. 
Although  never  aspiring  to  be  one  of  her  leaders,  I  have  been 
for  twenty  years  enrolled  among  her  most  zealous  and  faithful 
private  soldiers.     If  I  seem  now  for  the   moment  to  step  out 
from  her  lines,  and  to  take  position  above  that  of  a  mere  pri- 
vate, it  is  only  because  those  who  used  to  bear  her  banner  high 
and  proudly  amid  the  ranks  of  her  enemies,  have  now  not  only 
surrendered  that  banner  into  the  hands  of  her  enemies,  but 
are  foremost  in  the  onslaught  and  loudest  in  the  battle-cry 
against  her ! 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  provisions  of  this  bill, 
the  end  and  aim  of  which  are  avowed  to  be  the  destruction  of 
the  present  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States — that  party 
which  the  gentleman  was  pleased  to  denounce  in  his  speech  on 


12  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

the  Cumberland  road  bill  to  be  "a standing  fraud  and  imposi 
tion  on  this  country." 

I  begin,  sir,  with  its  caption  :  "  A  bill  to  secure  the  freedom 
of  elections."  The  elections  of  the  people  of  the  United  States; 
all  the  elections,  State  and  Federal,  in  all  the  States.  The 
freedom  of  the  elections  of  the  United  States !  Sir,  you  have 
but  to  state  the  proposition,  in  any  company,  in  any  State  or 
county  in  this  Union,  to  raise  the  smile  of  derision  at  its  absur- 
dity. What!  our  elections  not  free  enough  in  this  country, 
where  every  man  goes  forward  to  the  polls  of  his  own  accord, 
and  casts  his  vote  for  whom  he  pleases !  goes  in  his  own  un- 
questioned and  unquestionable  majesty,  asking  no  man's  per- 
mission,  and  submitting  to  no  limitation  or  restriction  on  his 
rights  whatsoever !  How  can  you  secure  more  freedom  to  us 
in  elections  than  we  now  enjoy?  How  can  you  better  secure, 
by  law,  that  freedom  which  has  been  for  more  than  fifty  years 
secured  to  us  by  the  Constitution?  Sir,  it  is  like  substituting 
statutory  freedom  for  constitutional  freedom.  It  is  a  good  deal 
like  what  the  advocates  of  this  bill  call  "  the  purity  of  the 
elective  franchise."  Not  that  purity  which  is  felt  and  preserved 
in  the  hearts  of  the  honest  citizens  of  this  country ;  not  that 
virtue  which,  emanating  from  the  heart,  controls  and  governs 
the  conduct  of  the  people  in  administering  their  own  govern- 
ment in  their  own  way,  and  for  their  own  advantage  and  pros- 
perity ;  but  a  sort  of  pretended  legal  purity ;  a  Bort  of  hypocri- 
tical statutory  virtue,  which  would  yield  to  all  sorts  of  political 
prostitutions  on  the  first  seducing  bribe  that  might  be  laid  in 
its  way.  Away  with  these  forms  and  shadows ;  if  the  people 
have  not  purity  and  virtue  enough  (as  the  high  toned  Federalists 
have  always  said  they  had  not,)  to  govern  themselves,  you  can 
never  infuse  those  qualities  into  them  by  any  process  of  the 
law.  So  much  for  the  caption  of  this  bill.  I  call  your  atten- 
tion now  to  the  preamble  or  recitals  of  it.  The  first  one  of 
these  recitals  is  the  following : 

"Whereas,  complaints  are  made  that  officers  of  the  United  States,  or  persons 
holding  offices  or  employments  under  the  authority  of  the  same,  other  than  the 
heads  of  the  chief  Executive  Departments,  or  such  officers  as  stand  in  the 
relation  of  constitutional  advisers  of  the  President,  have  been  removed  from 
office  or  dismissed  from  their  employment  upon  'political  grounds,  or  for  opin. 
ion's  sake ;  and  whereas,  such  a  practice  is  manifestly  a  violation  of  the 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  13 

freedom  of  elections,  an  attack  upon  the  public  liberty,  and  a  high  misde- 
meanor." 

Here,  sir,  is  a  preamble,  for  which  there  is  no  proposed  en- 
actment. It  alleges  certain  conduct  to  be  a  high  misdemeanor, 
yet  proposes  no  penalty  or  punishment  for  the  crime.  Why, 
then,  is  it  intruded  here  on  this  paper?  Sir,  I  take  it  to  be  a 
perfect  anomaly ;  a  thing  unknown  before  in  the  history  of  le- 
gislation. I  again  demand  to  know  why  it  is  put  down  in  the 
preamble,  but  not  inserted  in  the  enacting  clause  of  the  bill? 
I  can  draw  but  one  conclusion  from  this  strange  fact,  and  that 
is,  that  the  doctrine  will  do  to  profess  but  not  to  practice;  to 
show  off  a  speech  upon,  in  order  to  excite  popular  feelings,  but 
not  to  be  established  as  one  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  which  it  is 
known  would  have  to  be  repealed  so  soon  as  its  operation  was 
seen  and  understood.  I  mean  to  examine  this  dangling  su- 
pernumerary presently  to  show  that  the  arguments  in 
its  favor  are  all  fallacious,  and  the  facts  on  which  it  purports  to 
be  based  have  no  existence.  I  pass  on  to  the  second  clause  of 
the  preamble,  in  the  following  words  : 

"  Whereas,  complaints  are  also  made  that  officers  of  the  United  States,  or 
persons  holding  offices  or  employments  under  the  authority  of  the  same,  are  in 
the  habit  of  intermeddling  in  elections,  both  State  and  Federal,  otherwise  than 
by  giving  their  votes  ;  and  whereas,  such  a  practice  is  a  violation  of  the  free- 
dom of  elections,  and  a  gross  abuse,  which  ought  to  be  discountenanced  by  the 
appointing  power,  and  prohibited  by  law." 

"  Be  it  enacted,  fyc,  That,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  July  next,  no  officer, 
agent,  or  contractor,  or  other  person  holding  an  office  or  employment  of  trust 
or  profit  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  shall,  by  the 
contribution  of  money  or  other  valuable  thing,  or  by  the  use  of  the  franking  privi- 
lege, or  the  abuse  of  any  other  official  privilege  or  function,  or  by  threats  and  me- 
naces, or  in  any  other  manner,  intermeddle  with  the  election  of  any  member  or  mem- 
bers of  either  House  of  Congress,  or  of  the  President  or  Vice  President  of  the 
United  States,  or  of  the  Governor  or  other  officer  of  any  State,  or  of  any  mem- 
ber or  members  of  the  Legislature  of  any  State ;  and  every  such  officer  or 
other  person  offending  therein,  shall  beheld  to  be  guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor; 
and  on  conviction  in  any  court  of  the  United  States,  having  jurisdiction  thereof, 
shall  pay  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars." 

This  is  the  first  section  of  the  bill.  According  to  its  provis- 
ions, it  will  be  seen  that  every  grade  of  office  and  every  variety 
of  employment,  under  the  United  States,  is  included;  also, 
that  every  thing  and  any  thing  said  or  done  by  them  (except 


14  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

simply  giving  in  their  own  votes)  is  to  be  taken  as  an  intermed- 
dling in  the  election,  and  therefore  to  be  punished  by  a  fine 
not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars.  Now,  sir,  the  application 
of  this  law  to  my  own  State  is  what  I  desire  to  bring  before  the 
House.  There,  sir,  we  have  but  few  public  officers  of  any  grade, 
except  our  postmasters ;  we  have  some  half  dozen  of  these,  on 
an  average,  in  each  county.  Those  at  our  county  towns  com- 
monly receive  some  two  or  three  hundred  dollars— rarely  so 
much  as  five  hundred.  At  the  lesser  villages  and  country 
stores,  and  at  the  neighborhood  post-offices,  it  is  quite  frequent 
that  the  compensation  does  not  amount  to  fifty  or  one  hundred 
dollars.  The  office  is  in  fact  taken  as  an  encumbrance,  sub- 
mitted to  for  neighborhood  convenience.  Now,  sir,  all  these 
postmasters,  beside  being  officers  of  the  United  States,  are  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Tennessee. 
They  are  deeply  interested  as  citizens  in  the  elections,  both 
State  and  Federal;  in  the  county  elections  of  sheriffs,  clerks, 
registers,  &c;  in  the  military  elections  of  those  officers,  under 
whom  they  may  have  to  serve  in  times  of  war.  Yet,  sir,  it  is 
proposed  that  a  little  fifty-dollar  appointment  as  postmaster  is 
to  weigh  down  all  his  other  interest  as  a  citizen ;  and,  if  he 
dare  open  his  mouth  in  favor  of  one  candidate  or  the  other,  he 
is  to  be  instantly  fined  one  thousand  dollars.  If  called  on  to 
state  a  fact  in  his  own  knowledge,  and  perhaps  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  nobody  else,  which  it  is  of  the  highest  consequence  to  the 
country  should  be  known — a  fact  which  became  known  to  him 
long  before  he  was  a  postmaster — he  must  conceal  that  fact ;  he 
must  suppress  and  hide  the  truth  from  his  countrymen,  or  pay 
down  the  penalty  of  one  thousand  dollars.  Sir,  is  this  my  col- 
league's notions  of  the  liberty,  freedom  and  purity  of  our  elec- 
tions? To  speak  out  will  affect  the  elections  just  as  far  as 
truth  and  character  will  and  ought  to  affect  them ;  to  seal  up 
his  lips  and  suppress  the  truth  will  also  affect  the  election,  and 
put  men  into  office  who  have  no  honesty  in  civil  affairs,  nor 
courage  nor  skill  for  the  defence  of  the  country  in  military  ap- 
pointments. Now,  sir,  there  are,  on  an  average  for  each  county 
in  Tennessee,  a  half-dozen  of  our  fellow-citizens  who  have  the 
common  rights  of  citizens ;  they  have  the  liberty  of  speech  un- 
der all  the  guarantees  of  the  Constitution ;  they  have,  however, 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  15 

undertaken  to  perform  the  duties  of  postmasters  for  their  re- 
spective villages  and  neighborhoods ;  and  for  this  they  are  to 
be  disfranchised,  deprived  of  the  liberty  of  speech,  and  com- 
pelled to  stand  silent  and  gagged  in  the  midst  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  Sir ,  is  this  the  freedom  after  which  my  colleague  has 
been  seeking  under  this  bill  ?  If  it  is,  God  forbid  that  he 
should  ever  find  it.  For  one,  I  repudiate  and  scorn  such  dis- 
tinctions in  a  free  country.  I  repudiate  and  scorn  a  principle 
that  sets  one  neighbor  as  a  spy  over  another,  and  which  ena- 
bles one  man  to  propagate  the  vilest  falsehood  on  another,  be- 
cause his  exposure  can  only  be  made  by  a  postmaster,  whose 
lips  are  hermetically  sealed  under  the  enormous  penalty  of 
one  thousand  dollars.  Sir,  this  bill  should  be  rather  called  a 
bill  offering  a  premium  to  falsehood  and  defamation  ;  a  bill  to 
enslave  a  large  portion  of  American  freemen,  because  they  are 
willing  to  undertake  the  performance  of  high  and  necessary 
public  duties  ;  a  bill  to  establish  slavery  in  all  our  elections,  by 
depriving  one  portion  of  the  community  of  those  rights  and 
privileges  allowed  to  all  the  rest.  Sir,  I  shall  show  you  pres- 
ently that  those  illustrious  sages  and  patriots,  who  lived  in  the 
earlier  and  purer  days  of  the  Republic,  rejected  with  scorn  the 
very  provisions  of  the  bill  now  under  consideration.  Before  I 
present  their  opinions  on  this  branch  of  the  subject,  let  me  ad- 
vert to  the  arguments  and  doctrines  of  my  honorable  colleague 
in  relation  to  the  appointing  and  removing  power  of  the  Exec- 
utive ;  remember  that  the  argument  of  the  gentleman  was 
made  on  the  preamble  of  his  bill,  for  which  there  was  no  cor- 
responding prohibitory  or  penal  enactment.  The  argument 
then,  like  the  preamble,  might  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  mere 
abstraction,  calculated  to  do  no  particular  good  nor  harm  any 
way.  But  I  know  my  honorable  colleague  too  well  not  to  un- 
derstand that  all  the  labor  he  has  bestowed  in  ascertaining  the 
opinion  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  other  illustri- 
ous individuals,  is  not  intended  to  be  lost  as  a  mere  abstraction, 
accidently  brought  up  in  the  course  of  this  discussion.  No, 
sir,  that  portion  of  the  gentleman's  argument  will  no  doubt,  in 
due  season,  make  its  appearance  in  the  Whig  papers  of  our 
State  in  blazing  capitals.  Well,  sir,  and  what  were  the  opin- 
ions of  those  illustrious  men  on  the  question  of  appointments 


16  CONGRESSIONAL   SPEECHES. 

to  office,  which  necessarily  includes  also  their  opinions  in  rela- 
tion to  removals  wherever  the  right  to  remove  has  been 
conceded. 

I  begin  with  Gen.  Washington.     In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Picker- 
ing, dated  September,  1795,  he  uses  the  following  emphatic 
language  :  "  I  shall  not,  while  I  have  the  honor  to  administer 
the  Government,  bring  a  man  into  any  office  of  consequence, 
knowingly,  whose  political  tenets  are  adverse  to  the  measures 
which  the  General  Government  are  pursuing ;  for  this,  in  my 
opinion,  would  be  a  sort   of  political  suicide :  that  it  would 
embarrass  its  movements  is  most  certain.      But  of  two  men 
equally  well  affected  to  the  true  interest  of  their  country,  of 
equal  abilities,  it  is  the  part  of  prudence  to  give  the  preference 
to  him  against  whom  the  least  clamor  can  be  excited."     Ob- 
serve, sir,  that  in  this  opinion  of  Gen.  Washington,  he  makes 
no  reference  to  monarchist,  or  to  persons  opposed  to  that  Rev- 
olution which  secured  to  us  our  national  independence.     He 
goes  beyond  all  this,  and  speaks  of  political  tenets  adverse  to 
the  measures  of  the  General  Government.      This  preamble 
recites  that  removals  on  political  grounds  are  high  misdemean- 
ors.    Gen.  Washington  declares  that  a  difference  in  political 
tenets  is  sufficient  grounds  for  refusing  appointments.     This 
preamble  recites  that  removals  upon  political  grounds  is  an 
attack  on  public  liberty.      Gen.  Washington  declares,    that 
appointments  to  office  of  such  as  hold  political  tenets  adverse 
to  the  principles  of  his   administration  of  the   Government, 
would  be  a  sort  of  political  suicide.      Sir,  this  brief  parallel 
between  this  recital  in  the  bill  and  the  opinions  of  Gen.  Wash- 
ington, directly  on  the  point,  ought  for  ever  to  seal  the  fate 
of  this  proposition,  so  far    as  his  distinguished   authority  is 
concerned. 

Immediately  after  the  retirement  of  Gen.  Washington,  a 
contest  sprung  up  for  the  succession  between  the  elder  Adams 
and  Mr.  Jefferson.  The  elements  of  party,  before  that  time, 
had  taken  no  definite  form,  or  shape  ;  they  were  "  rudis  indi- 
gestaque  moles"  In  that  contest,  however,  they  became  settled 
and  distinct.  The  Federalists  adhered  to  Mr.  Adams;  the 
Republicans  to  Mr.  Jefferson.  Mr.  Adams  succeeded,  and  under 
him,  the  Federalists  took  possession  of  nearly  every  office  of 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  1? 

his  administration.  In  support  of  this  fact,  I  refer  to  the  3d 
volume  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  works,  page  476.  In  his  celebrated 
New  Haven  letter  he  remarks,  "  It  would  have  been  to  me  a 
circumstance  of  great  relief,  had  I  found  a  moderate  participa- 
tion of  office  in  the  hands  of  the  majority  ;  I  would  gladly  have 
left  to  time  and  accident  to  raise  them  to  their  just  share ;  but 
their  total  exclusion  calls  for  prompter  corrections."  In  his  let- 
ter to  Levi  Lincoln,  3d  volume,  page  477,  he  remarks  :  "  I  had 
foreseen,  years  ago,  that  the  first  Republican  President  who 
should  come  into  office  after  all  the  places  in  the  Government 
had  become  exclusively  occupied  by  Federalists,  would  have 
a  dreadful  operation  to  perform ;  that  the  Republicans  would 
consent  to  a  continuation  of  every  thing  in  Feaeral  hands  was 
not  to  be  expected,  because  neither  just  nor  politic.  On  him 
was  then  to  devolve  the  office  of  an  executioner — that  of 
lopping   off." 

I  read  these  extracts  now  only  to  establish  the  fact  of  a 
total  exclusion  from  office  of  the  Republicans  under  the  elder 
Adams's  administration.  Mr.  Jefferson  succeeded  Mr.  Adams. 
He  was  elected  by  the  Republican  party,  and  was  itt  great 
apostle  and  founder.  The  lapse  of  years  has  only  thrown  a 
holier  reverence  around  his  name,  and  the  political  researches 
of  the  age  have  only  given  a  brighter  lustre  to  the  principles 
of  simplicity,  economy,  and  equality,  which  he  inculcated  on 
his  followers.  Sir,  it  is  that  hallowed  reverence  for  his  name 
and  his  principles,  which  is  yet  cherished  by  a  large  proportion 
of  the  American  people,  that  my  colleague  attempts  now  to 
make  subservient  to  the  destruction  of  his  true  friends  and 
followers,  and  to  strengthen  the  reviving  energies  of  that  old 
Federal  party  which  he  so  signally  vanquished  in  1801.  Yes, 
sir,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  watchword  of  "  Jefferson  and 
liberty"  is  now  being  stolen  by  that  very  Federal  party  into 
whose  ranks  it  once  carried  dismay  and  terror  and  destruction. 
What  has  any  party  to  do  with  that  watchword  that  holds  in 
its  rank  and  hugs  to  its  bosom  every  anti-war  Federalist  on 
this  floor,  save  one  whose  reformation  dates  back  for  twenty 
years,  and  whose  devotion  to  Republican  principles,  during  all 
that  time,  gives  double  assurance  of  the  sincerity  and  thorough- 
ness of  his  reformation?  What,  I  repeat,  has  an  Essex-junto 
3 


18  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

man,  and  an  anti-war  Federalist,  to  do  with  the  watchword  of 
"  Jefferson  and  liberty  ?"  It  should  blister  the  tongue  that  re- 
peats it,  and  crimson  with  shame  all  who  concur  in  the  pro- 
fanation. Sir,  I  have  reached  the  point  where  I  mean  to  give 
battle  to  my  honorable  colleague.  "  War  to  the  knife,"  if  he 
may  choose  to  have  it  so.  He  maintains  that  Gen.  Jackson's 
administration,  and  that  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  was  not,  and  is  not, 
JefFersonian  in  its  character;  or,  in  other  words,  that  General 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  are  not  "  Democrats  of  the  JefFer- 
sonian school,"  because  they  have  both  outraged  the  principles 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  making  appointments  and  removals  from 
office  :  that  they  have  proscribed  men  for  opinion's  sake,  and 
ejected  them  from  office  against  all  the  principles  and  practices 
of  that  great  apostle  of  liberty.  I  not  only  deny  these  asser- 
tions, but  I  here  undertake  to  disprove  them  altogether. 

Sir,  I  repeat,  for  greater  perspicuity,  that  I  now  here  under- 
take to  show  that  both  General  Jackson's  and  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
administrations  have  been  far  less  proscriptive  than  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's was.  That  great  man's  principles  and  practices,  on  the 
subject  of  appointments  and  removals,  have  been  extensively 
misunderstood,  because  they  have  been  misrepresented.  I  now 
refer  to  his  own  letters  for  proof  of  his  true  doctrine. 

He  came  into  office  on  the  4th  of  March,  1801.  All  the 
offices  of  the  Government  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Federalists. 
That  whole  party,  with  a  furious  desperation,  then,  if  not  yet, 
unequalled  in  the  annals  of  political  warfare,  resisted  his  elec- 
tion. The  Republicans,  however,  taunted  as  they  were  as 
"  greasy  Democrats,"  derided,  then  as  now,  With  being  but  as 
the  rabble  of  the  nation,  bore  him  onward,  until  they  placed 
him  in  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  a  free  people.  Intsalled 
into  office,  the  question  instantly  arose,  what  course  he  would 
pursue  in  making  appointments  and  removals  from  office. 
The  whole  Federal  party  had  denounced  him :  would  he  now 
denounce  them?  The  question  was  soon  solved.  He  drew  a 
distinction  between  Federalists.  1.  The  Federalist  proper. 
2.  Those  who  were  called  Federalists,  bul,  in  fact,  were  Repub- 
licans in  principle,  but  who  had  been  deceived  and  so  made  to 
act  with  the  Federalists,  while  at  heart,  they  were  sound  Re- 
publicans.    The  first  class  or  Federalist  proper,  he  rejected  on 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  19 

all  occasions,  turning  them  out,  without  exception  and  without 
ceremony.  They  were  monarchist  in  principle,  and  were,  there- 
fore, not  proper  agents  under  him,  to  carry  out  and  perpetuate 
our  Republican  institutions.  The  second  class  (the  Federal 
sect  of  Republicans,  as  he  termed  them)  he  permitted  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  offices,  to  a  certain  degree.  To  show  that  I  have 
stated  Mr.  Jefferson's  principles  with  entire  and  perfect  ac- 
curacy, I  will  read  from  his  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  dated  July  11, 
1801  : 

"  Dear  Sir  :  Your  favor  of  the  15th  came  to  hand  on  the  25tl^  June, 
and  conveyed  a  great  deal  of  that  information  which  I  am  anxious  to  re- 
ceive. The  consolidation  of  our  fellow-citizens  in  general,  is  the  great 
object  we  ought  to  keep  in  view  ;  and  that  being  once  obtained,  while  we 
associate  with  us  in  affairs  to  a  certain  degree,  the  Federal  sect  of  Repub- 
licans, we  must  strip  of  all  the  means  of  influence,  the  Essex-Junto  and 
their  associate  monarchists  in  every  part  of  the  Union.  The  former  differ 
from  us  only  in  the  shades  of  power  to  be  given  to  the  Executive,  being 
with  us  attached  to  Republican  government.  The  latter  wish  to  sap  the 
republic  by  fraud,  if  they  cannot  destroy  it  by  force,  and  to  erect  an  English 
monarchy  in  its  place  ;  some  of  them  (as  Mr.  Adams)  thinking  its  corrupt 
parts  should  be  cleansed  away,  others  (as  Mr.  Hamilton)  thinking  that 
would  make  it  an  impracticable  machine.  We  are  proceeding  gradually  in 
the  regeneration  of  offices  and  introducing  Republicans  to  some  share  in 
them.  I  do  not  know  that  it  will  be  pushed  farther  than  was  settled  before 
you  went  away,  except  as  to  Essex  men.  I  must  ask  you  to  make  out  a  list 
of  those  in  office  in  yours,  and  the  neighboring  States,  and  to  furnish  me 
with  it.  There  is  a  little  of  this  spirit  south  of  the  Hudson.  I  under- 
stand that  J******  is  a  very  determined  one,  though  in  private  life  amia- 
ble and  honorable  ;  but  amiable  monarchists  are  not  safe  subjects  of  Re- 
publican confidence.  *  *  *  *  Our  gradual  reformations 
seem  to  produce  good  effects  everywhere  except  in  Connecticut.  Their 
late  session  of  the  Legislature  has  been  more  intolerant  than  all  others. 
We  must  meet  them  with  equal  intolerance.  When  they  will  give  a  share  in 
the  State  offices,  they  shall  be  replaced  in  a  share  of  the  general  offices. 
Till  then  we  must  follow  their  example." 

To  what  degree  of  participation  in  the  offices,  Mr.  Jefferson 
admitted  the  second  class  of  Federalist,  may  be  seen  in  his  let- 
ter of  the  11th  September,  1804,  to  Mr.  Adams,  in  which  h© 
states,  that  they  were  admitted  in  fair  proportion  to  their  num- 
ber throughout  the  United  States.  Sir,  I  have  now  spread  out 
before  you,  as  on  a  map,  the  opinion  and  practices  of  Jeffer- 
son.    They  admit  of  no  cavil  and  no  misunderstanding.    Now 


20  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

I  demand  to  know  when  and  where — in  what  year  of  his  admin- 
istration or  in  what  State  of  this  Union — was  General  Jackson 
more  intolerant  than  Mr.  Jefferson?  When  did  he  say  "  We 
must  meet  them  with  equal  intolerance  ?"  When  did  he  say  to 
those  States  who  were  most  opposed  to  him,  and  who  proscribed 
all  his  friends  from  office,  "  Until  you  will  give  a  share  in  the 
State  offices,  we  will  follow  your  example  V  Never,  never  !  In 
my  own  State,  there  never  was  a  day  or  an  hour,  during  his  ad- 
ministration, that  General  Jackson  did  not  retain  a  greater 
number  of  his  enemies  in  office  than  they  would  have  borne  to 
the  ntfmber  of  anti- Jackson  men  in  that  State  ;  and  yet,  sir,  we 
are  told  that  General  Jackson  exceeded  Mr.  Jefferson  in  in- 
tolerance toward  his  enemies ! 

How  does  the  same  question  now  stand  under  the  present 
Administration?  Throughout  the  United  States  I  do  verily  be- 
lieve that  a  majority  of  the  office-holders  have  been  and  still  are 
opposed  to  Mr.  Van  Buren.  The  very  best  estimates  that  have 
been  made  show  the  fact  satisfactorily  to  every  impartial  mind. 
Does  this  look  like  proscription  for  opinion's  sake?  In  my  own 
state  the  fact  has  never  been  denied.  In  my  own  district,  three 
out  of  the  five  postmasters  of  the  county  towns  which  I  repre- 
sent, are  thorough-going  Whigs :  active,  zealous  partisans. 
Some  of  them  made  heavy  bets  against  the  candidates  of  the 
Administration  in  the  last  elections.  They  attended  public  as- 
semblies out  of  their  respective  neighborhoods,  and  exerted  all 
the  influence  they  possessed  in  the  election.  Sir,  let  me  assure 
my  honorable  colleague,  that  if  his  bill  had  passed  before  the 
last  Tennessee  elections,  it  would  have  cut  right  and  left 
among  his  Whig  friends  in  that  State.  Instead  of  dealing  a 
deadly  blow  "  on  the  life-blood  of  the  party  there,"  it  would, 
have  rebounded  on  the  heads  of  his  own  friends. 

But  it  is  often  said,  while  Mr.  Von  Buren  may  have  retained 
an  equal  number  of  his  enemies  in  office,  it  has  only  been  in 
the  inferior  ones,  such  as  postmasters.  Sir,  a  postmaster 
is  very  far  from  being  an  inferior  appointment,  so  far  as 
political  results  are  to  be  attained.  It  is,  in  my  judgment, 
to  precisely  such  officers  that  General  Washington  allud- 
ed, when  he  declared  he  would  appoint  no  person  to  any 
office   of   consequence,   who    was    opposed  to  the    principles 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  21 

of  his  administration  of  the  Government.  It  is  through 
the  postoffices  that  the  press  exerts  its  mighty  power  on 
the  public  mind.  Every  postmaster  has  it  in  his  power, 
more  or  less,  to  paralize  its  exertion,  by  suppressing  public 
documents ;  or,  if  he  dare  not  go  so  far  as  that,  by  laying  them 
away  upon  some  dusty  shelf,  and  not  handing  them  out  to  the 
people,  until  regularly  and  distinctly  demanded.  On  the  con- 
trary, a  willing  postmaster,  favorable  to  the  views  of  one  party, 
may  hail  his  fellow-citizens  as  they  pass,  and  notify  them  that 
letters  and  packages  have  arrived  at  the  office,  addressed  to 
them,  and  thus  give  them  a  wide  and  instantaneous  circulation. 
If  any  man  desires  to  be  convinced  of  all  this,  let  him  but  ex- 
amine and  inquire  at  the  postoffices  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
present  session,  and  see,  at  some  of  them,  what  heaps  of  let- 
ters and  documents  will  remain  piled  up  and  undistributed  for 
weeks  and  perhaps  months  after  their  arrival.  I  mean  to  look 
into  this  practice  on  my  return,  and  no  instance  of  partiality, 
such  as  I  am  commenting  upon,  shall  go  unrebuked.  I  assure 
my  honorable  colleague  that  even  the  biography  of  General 
Harrison,  and  the  speeches  of  the  gentleman  from  North 
Carolina  (Mr.  Stanly,)  with  which  he  has  been  deluging  my 
district,  shall  be  faithfully  and  impartially  distributed.  So  far, 
therefore,  as  political  results  are  concerned,  your  postmaster  is 
an  officer  of  the  highest  consequence ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  the 
best  proof  of  liberality  and  toleration,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  and 
General  Jackson  could  have  given,  to  have  let  in  their  enemies 
into  an  equal  if  not  greater  participation  in  them.  A  liberality 
greater  than  Washington's,  or  Jefferson's,  or  any  other  Presi- 
dent's, unless  it  may  be  that  of  Mr.  Monroe. 

Sir,  I  have  not  yet  said  anything  in  relation  to  the  opinions 
of  Mr.  Madison.  My  honorable  colleague  was  pleased  to 
hold  him  up  as  a  most  perfect  model  of  a  great  statesman, 
whose  opinions  should  make  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on 
his  countrymen.  I  concur  with  him  in  his  high  eulogy  on  that 
illustrious  patriot.  Reared  in  Virginia,  that  mother  of  so  many 
presidents,  I  was  early  taught,  next  to  that  of  Washington,  to 
revere  the  names  of  Madison  and  of  Jefferson.  Then,  as  now,  I 
paid  no  homage  to  the  opinions  of  one  which  was  not  paid 
equally  to  those  of  the  other.     Then,  as  now,  I  regarded  them 


22  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

as  two  bright  but  equal  luminaries,  by  whose  light  it  will  be 
safe,  at  all  times,  for  their  countrymen  to  walk.  I  now  invite 
my  honorable  colleague  to  test  his  bill  by  the  lights  of  Mr. 
Madison's  opinions.  My  honorable  colleague  has,  no  doubt, 
often  consoled  himself  with  the  belief  that  he  stood  foremost 
of  all  others,  in  discovering  this  favorite  remedy  for  preserving 
the  purity,  and  securing  the  freedom,  of  elections  !  But  what 
will  be  his  surprise  when  I  inform  him  that  this  same  gag*- 
remedy  was  discovered  and  proposed  almost  fifty  years  ago  ; 
actually  discovered  and  proposed  almost  fifty  years  ago !  Yes, 
sir,  there  were  "  Surgeon  Crittendens"  then  as  well  as  now  ! 
But  they  were  then,  as  now,  pronounced  mere  empirics ;  and 
their  quack  remedies,  rejected  and  condemned,  as  they  now 
are;  rejected  and  condemned  by  Mr.  Madison  himself,  that 
favorite  authority  to  which  the  gentleman  referred,  and  on 
which  he  so  confidently  relied.  Dropping  all  figures  of  speech, 
I  will  now  give  you  the  recorded  opinions  of  Mr.  Madison.  I 
read  from   Dunlap's   Daily   Advertiser  of  January  22, 1791 : 

"House  of  Representatives,  January  22,  1791.— Excise  bill  was  un- 
der discussion  ;  Mr.  Jackson  [I  think  of  Georgia]  moved  to  amend  the  bill 
by  inserting  the  following  : 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  if  any  inspector  or  other  officer,  or  per- 
son concerned  in  the  collection  of  the  revenue  to  be  raised  by  this  act, 
shall  by  any  message  or  writing,  or  in  any  other  manner,  persuade  or  en- 
deavor to  persuade,  any  elector  to  give,  or  dissuade,  or  endeavor  to  dissuade, 
any  from  giving  his  vote  in  the  choice  of  any  person  to  be  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  member  of  the  Senate,  or  President  of  the 
United  States,  such  inspector,  or  other  person  so  offending,  shall  be  for 
ever  disabled  from  holding  an  office  under  this  act,  and  shall  be  subject  to  a 
penalty  of dollars." 

The  vote  was  taken  by  ayes  and  noes — ayes  21,  noes  37  : 
Mr.  Madison  and  the  celebrated  republican,  Wm.  B.  Giles, 
voting  in  the  negative.  Sir,  here  was  the  first  gag  bill  ever 
offered  in  America.  It  was  confined  to  those  officers  concerned 
in  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  and  prohibited  an  interference 
only  in  the  election  of  certain  officers  in  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, and  yet  it  was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  nearly  two  to 
one,  and  by  the  votes  of  both  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Giles, 
two  of  the  soundest  republicans  that  ever  lived  in  this  country. 
Where  now,  let  me  ask,  is  the  boasted  authority  of  Mr.  Madison 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  23 

In  favor  of  this  bill  ?  It  stands  recorded  against  it,  on  a  bill 
much  less  objectionable  than  the  one  now  proposed  by  my 
honorable  colleague. 

[Mr.  Bell,  here  rose  and  said  that  he  wished  it  to  be  understood  by  the 
gentleman  and  the  House,  that  he  would  have  voted  against  the  amend- 
ment himself.] 

Mr.  Brown  replied,  then  he  apprehended  he  need  not  spend 
so  much  time  against  the  gentleman's  bill,  since  he  began  to 
suspect  that  when  it  might  come  to  the  test  he  did  not  mean  to 
vote  for  it  himself.  But  how  can  the  authority  of  Mr.  Madi- 
son be  invoked  in  favor  of  this  bill,  when  it  is  known  that  it 
was  his  giant  arm  that  dealt  the  blows  that  terminated  the  ex- 
istence of  the  alien  and  sedition  laws  :  The  great  principle 
that  pervaded  the  sedition  law  is  the  same  as  in  this  bill.  That  bill 
punished  all  those  who  should  utter  or  publish  anything  defama- 
tory against  our  rulers ;  this  punishes  all  who  shall  intermeddle 
in  elections,  either  for  or  against  our  rulers ;  not  those  only 
who  are,  but  those  who  desire  and  offer  to  become  our  rulers  ; 
not  in  a  few  of  the  higher  departments,  but  in  all  of  them,  both 
State  and  federal,  civil  and  military.  That  punished  all  offend- 
ing citizens,  this  only  such  as  have  superadded  to  the  duties  of 
citizenship  those  of  official  station.  That  was,  indeed,  less 
odious  than  the  present  bill.  There  the  truth  could  be  given 
in  evidence  in  order  to  shield  the  citizen  from  punishment ;  here 
truth  has  no  advocate,  and  innocence  finds  no  protection ;  true 
or  false,  one  single  word,  uttered  in  an  election  more  favorable 
to  one  party  than  the  other,  shall  subject  the  citizen  to  the 
enormous  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars.  He  may  have  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  unfavorable  to  his  own  party ;  he  may  have 
only  insisted  on  the  superior  qualifications  of  one  candidate 
over  those  of  another  ;  or  he  may  have  only  urged  some  gal- 
lant achievement  in  war  or  some  noble  self-denying  deed  in 
time  of  peace,  as  a  consideration  which  entitled  one  party  to 
the  gratitude  of  the  country  over  his  competitor  and  rival. 
But  I  need  not  compare  the  relative  merits  of  the  present  bill 
and  the  sedition  law.  The  same  spirit  animates  them  both — 
a  spirit  that  seeks  to  prostrate  the  dearest  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  people — a  spirit  that  alike  destroys  the  freedom  of  the 
press  and  the  liberty  of  speech — a  spirit  which  Mr.  Madison 


24  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

more  than  any  other  man  then  living  contributed  to  subdue 
and  to  extirpate.  Sir,  I  challenge  casuistry  itself  to  draw  any 
sensible  and  clear  distinction  between  the  sedition  law,  Mr. 
Crittenden's  bill,  and  the  bill  of  my  honorable  colleague.  They 
all  contain  the  same  principle,  and  that  principle  stands  at 
open  war  with  those  great  provisions  of  the  Constitution  which 
secure  to  the  people  the  freedom  of  the  press  and  the  liberty 
of  speech. 

From  1791  to  1837,  with  the  exception  of  the  alien  and 
sedition  laws,  no  attempt  was  made  to  force  such  legislation 
as  this  on  the  country.  During  that  long  period  the  people 
were  contented  that  every  citizen,  whether  a  public  officer  or 
not,  should  enjoy  his  constitutional  rights.  That  the  assump- 
tion of  office  was  but  the  assumption  of  new  duties  and  liabili- 
ties for  the  public  good,  and  should,  therefore,  be  attended  with 
no  sacrifice  or  destruction  of  his  personal  rights  as  a  free  citi- 
zen of  this  great  republic.  During  all  this  time,  I  maintain 
that  our  elections — all  of  them — both  State  and  federal,  were 
eminently  free :  free  as  they  could  be — free  as  the  air  we 
breathe  and  the  water  we  drink.  Everywhere  through  this 
wide  country,  on  our  election  days,  every  American  citizen 
walked  forth  to  the  ballot-box  in  his  own  personal  majesty, 
paying  no  homage,  save  to  himself  and  the  laws  and  the  Con- 
stitution. I  appeal  to  the  history  of  our  elections  in  the  great 
contest  between  the  elder  Adams  and  Mr.  Jefferson ;  to  the  no 
less  excited  canvass  between  the  2d  Adams  and  Gen.  Jackson  ; 
to  the  contest  between  Mr.  Clay,  the  now  "  great  discarded," 
and  General  Jackson  ;  in  fine  to  every  one  of  our  elections,  to 
show  that  all  of  them,  every  where,  have  been  as  free  as  our 
glorious  Constitution,  and  the  proud,  indomitable  spirit  of  our 
countrymen  could  make  them. 

What  occasion,  then,  was  there  for  the  revival  of  this  twice- 
repudiated  doctrine  of  abridging  the  privileges  of  the  people — 
repudiated  by  the  wisest  and  best  men  that  ever  lived  in  any 
age  or  in  any  country  ?  The  first  reason  given,  and  the  one 
most  relied  upon,  is,  that  the  President  in  office  may  use  his 
patronage  so  as  to  give  him  an  undue  advantage  over  all  com- 
petitors. This  patronage  consists  in  the  power  of  making 
appointments  under  the   express,  or  implied  understanding, 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  2& 

that  the  appointee  shall  use  his  influence  to  promote  the  elec- 
tion of  the  President.  Now,  if  all  this  were  conceded,  does 
not  my  colleague  perceive  that  the  appropriate  remedy  would 
have  to  be  found,  not  in  a  gag  bill,  but  in  the  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  changing  the  appointing  power  into  other 
hands,  or  limiting  the  period  of  presidential  service  to  a  single 
term  of  four  or  six  years  ?  By  the  last  amendment,  no  contest 
ever  could  take  place  between  the  ins  and  the  outs.  It  would 
then  be,  in  every  instance,  not  who  should  be  put  out,  but  who 
should  be  put  into  the  presidential  seat.  Then,  sir,  there  could  be 
no  selfish  motive  prompting  to  an  abuse  of  Executive  patronage; 
nor  any  adequate  one  for  charging  corruption  and  ambition  on 
any  man  who  was  faithfully  endeavoring  honestly  to  administer 
the  Government.  It  was  under  these  views  that  I  have  already 
■ubmitted  a  proposition  to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  in  away  that  will,  in  my  opinion,  be  the  true  and  proper 
remedy  for  all  complaints,  real  and  pretended,  against  Executive 
patronage  and  dictation.  I  shall  call  it  up  in  a  few  days,  and  see 
what  course  the  gentleman  and  his  friends  will  take  on  this 
subject.^  But,  sir,  in  the  meantime,  I  hesitate  not  to  say,  that 
this  patronage  is  greatly  overrated,  as  to  its  influence  on  elec- 
tions. On  an  average,  the  President  cannot  make  more  than  a 
dozen  or  two  important  appointments  in  each  State;  these 
could  not  produce  even  a  ripple  on  the  broad  and  mighty  sur- 
face of  its  population;  beside  this,  an  over-active  zeal  never 
fails  to  weaken  the  cause  it  espouses. 

The  influence  of  office-holders  is  more  than  counterbalanced 
by  that  of  office- seekers  Let  us  examine  it,  first  as  to  the  per- 
sonal exertions  of  the  parties  themselves.  Mr.  Van  Buren  since 
March,  1837, has  been  in.  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Webster,  and  General 
Harrison,  have  all  wanted  to  get  in  by  putting  Mr.  Van  Buren  out. 
Mr.  Webster  makes  his  electioneering  tour  through  the  north- 
west; Mr.  Clay  moves  out  upon  the  north,  and  arrogantly  traver- 
ses Mr.  Van  Buren's  own  country.  Gen.  Harrison  takes  charge 
of  the  mighty  West,  keeping  up  a  brisk  correspondence,  remod- 
eling his  old  political  opinions,  and  putting  himself  in  as  ac- 
ceptable a  position  as  possible  between  the  contending  parties 
of  the  day.  Sir,  do  you  not  see  at  once  that,  on  the  score  of 
personal  exertions,  it  is  precisely  three  to  one  in  favor  of  the 


26  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

outs?  But  it  is  said  that  the  President  in  office  has  so  much 
patronage,  so  many  offices  to  bestow,  that  it  gives  him  an  over- 
whelming advantage  over  all  competitors.  Well,  let  us  pause 
and  examine  the  weight  of  this  objection.  He  can  appoint 
one  Secretary  of  State,  and  that  one  will  have  to  work  against 
three  Secretaries  expectant  without — that  is,  against  Mr.  Clay'a 
Secretary,  Mr.  Webster's  Secretary,  and  General  Harrison's 
Secretary — three  to  one  again— and  so  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  and  all  the  other  secretaries ;  and,  in  fact,  of  all  the  other 
officers  and  agents  of  the  Government,  great  and  small.  I 
have  always  doubted  whether  this  power  of  conferring  office 
was  much  calculated  to  advance  the  popularity  of  a  President. 
Many  are  always  expecting  to  be  called,  while  but  few  can  ac- 
tually be  chosen.  The  disappointed  often  fall  back  into  a  state 
of  indifference  as  to  the  future  success  of  the  President,  and 
sometimes  find  revenge  for  his  supposed  neglect  and  ingrati- 
tude in  the  open  abandonment  and  denunciation  of  him.  Sir, 
I  do  not  pause  in  the  line  of  this  argument  to  give  you  instances 
of  this  sort  during  the  period  of  General  Jackson's  administra- 
tion ;  they  abounded  to  an  extent  which  few  have  suspected ; 
they  have  no  doubt  abounded  more  or  less  in  the  history  of 
every  administration. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  already  stated  that,  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  contented  and 
satisfied  with  the  unbounded  and  unquestioned  freedom  of  their 
elections.  What  occasion  was  there,  then,  for  the  revival  of 
this  twice  rejected  proposition?  twice  rejected,  at  the  time  of 
introduction,  by  my  honorable  colleague,  in  1837.  Sir,  I  re- 
member well  the  pretext  then  offered  for  its  revival.  It  was  the 
alleged  dictation  of  General  Jackson — his  dictation  in  writing 
his  Gwinn  and  Shelbyville  letters,  and  expressing  himself  freely 
and  fully  on  the  public  men  and  the  public  measures  of  the  day- 
These,  sir,were  thepretexts  for  all  this  cry  of  dictation  and  of  bring- 
ing Executive  patronage  to  bear  on  the  freedom  of  elections.  And 
yet,  sir,  now  that  the  occasion  has  gone  by — now  that  the  smoke 
of  party  contest  has  cleared  up,  so  far  as  General  Jackson  is 
concerned,  no  man  can  be  found  who  can  lay  his  finger  on  a 
single  line  or  sentence,  ever  written  by  General  Jackson  about 
those  times,  that  has  the  slightest  resemblance  to  dictation  to 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OP  ELECTIONS.  27 

his  countiymen.  To  dictate,  is  to  suggest,  to  point  out  with 
authority,  and  is  nearly  synonymous  with  command.  It  is  some- 
thing much  stronger  than  mere  counsel  or  advice,  and  yet 
is  a  shade  lower  than  an  imperative  order.  In  the  light  of  this 
definition,  I  defy  any  man  living  to  show  me  a  single  expres- 
sion in  the  Gwinn  letter  which  evinces  the  slightest  wish  on  the 
part  of  General  Jackson  to  dictate — to  order  or  command  his 
countrymen  what  course  to  pursue  in  the  selection  of  his  suc- 
cessor. General  Jackson  was  the  acknowledged  head  of  the 
Republican  party ;  he  saw  the  dangers  which  surrounded  it ;  he 
Ijnew  well  the  numerous  and  powerful  enemies  that  were  en- 
gaged to  overthrow  and  destroy  it;  he  knew  well  its  strength 
and  power  and  invincibility,  so  long  as  it  should  remain  undi- 
vided. When  Judge  White  was  brought  forward,  he  instantly 
perceived  the  dangers  of  division,  and  wrote  his  Gwinn  letter 
of  counsel  and  advice,  but  not  of  dictation ;  a  letter  expres- 
sive of  no  preference  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  over  Judge  White ;  a 
letter  exhorting  only  to  unanimity,  and  pointing  out,  in  his 
judgment,  the  best  means  of  attaining  it.  Yet,  for  doing  this, 
he  was  denounced  by  my  colleague  and  his  party  as  a  tyrant, 
a  despot,  and  dictator.  Yes,  sir,  for  writing  such  a  letter  as 
this,  that  man,  whose  whole  life  had  been  one  continued  scene 
of  noble  and  gallant  daring  in  defence  of  his  country,  was  de- 
nounced as  a  Roman  dictator — ready  and  resolved  to  overturn 
those  very  liberties  which  he  would  have  died  to  maintain. 
Sir,  the  advice  and  counsel  of  General  Jackson  on  that  occa- 
sion might  by  many  have  been  considered  injudicious,  or  even 
indelicate,  according  to  the  taste  and  fancy  of  individuals. 
But  I  maintain,  before  my  countrymen  and  the  world,  that  the 
charge  of  dictation,  so  loudly  and  repeatedly  made  by  my  col- 
league and  his  party,  is  no  where  sustained  by  that  letter. 

But  this  unfounded  charge  of  dictation  is  sometimes  attemp- 
ted to  be  sustained  by  a  reference  to  his  Shelbyville  letter ;  a 
letter  written  in  reply  to  an  invitation  to  partake  of  a  public 
dinner  proposed  to  be  given  to  him  by  the  noble-hearted  Demo- 
cracy of  Bedford  county.  He  declined  attending;  alluded  to 
the  recent  and  frequent  political  tergiversations  which  had  oc- 
curred, but  prophesied  boldly  that  the  people  of  Tennessee,  in 
spite  of  them,  would  stand  true  and  steadfast  to  their  ancient 


28 


CONGKESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 


Republican  principles.  Time  has  now  subjected  to  its  unerring 
scrutiny  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  every  statement  made  in 
that  letter.  The  banner  of  Mr.  Clay  under  which  my  two  col- 
leagues (Mr.  Gentry  and  Mr.  Bell)  and  their  whole  party  fought 
the  battles  of  the  last  Tennessee  campaign,  was  at  once  the 
evidence  of  their  change,  and  the  signal  of  their  defeat.  If 
further  proof  shouldbe  required  to  tear  away  every  shred  of  doubt, 
which  might  yet  hang  around  this  question  of  imputed  change, 
let  it  be  found. in  the  nomination  of  the  Harrisburg  convention. 
No,  not  in  that  convention,  for  Tennessee  was  not  there  ;  her  late 
leaders  had  not  the  face  to  ask  her  to  be  there.  They  knew 
that,  on  direct  proposal,  Tennessee  would  shrink  from  the  ad- 
justment of  rival  pretensions  between  three  individuals,  every 
one  of  whom  she  had  rejected  on  former  occasions.  No,  not  in 
that  convention,  but  in  that  confirmation  of  its  proceedings 
which  took  place  in  this  city ;  a  confirmation  in  which  both  of 
my  honorable  colleagues  participated,  and  which  has  since  re- 
ceived the  sanction  and  approval  of  nearly  their  whole  party 
in  Tennessee. 

This  Shelbyville  letter  was  the  first  warning  given  by  General 
Jackson,  that  a  deep  laid  scheme  had  been  formed  to  throw 
Tennessee  out  of  the  Republican  ranks,  and  to  place  her  among 
the  opposition  or  Federal  States  of  the  Union.  The  improba- 
bility of  success  in  so  daring  an  attempt,  encouraged  the  bold- 
est and  most  unequivocal  denials  of  the  charge,  denials  so  bold 
and  so  unequivocal  that  the  known  sagacity  of  General  Jackson 
and  his  deep  and  holy  devotion  to  the  Republican  institutions 
of  his  country,  could  scarcely  save  him  from  the  imputation  of 
having  slandered  and  traduced  the  alleged  authors  of  the  at- 
tempt. But  time,  I  repeat,  has  dissipated  every  doubt  on  the 
subject.  Those  who  were  designated  in  that  letter  as  newborn 
Whigs  (to  indicate  that  they  were  not  of  that  ancient  and  im- 
mortal band  who  so  justly  and  so  proudly  bore  the  name)  now 
no  longer  attempt  to  conceal  their  purposes ;  but  boldly  and 
publicly  claim  Tennessee  to  be  an  opposition  State;  trained, 
during  the  last  summer,  under  the  banner  of  Mr.  Clay,  but  to 
be  enlisted  permanently,  in  the  next,  under  that  of  General  Har- 
rison. Sir,  I  thank  God  that  General  Jackson  lived  long  enough 
to  see  the  refluent  wave  of  the  popular  will  in  the  last  elections, 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  29 

to  hear  the  coming  murmurs  of  an  indignant  and  deceived  peo- 
ple ;  but  I  sincerely  pray  that  he  may  live  to  see  (and,  living, 
he  will  see)  how  proudly  that  noble  and  gallant  State  will  resume 
her  position  among  the  Republican  States,  faithful  and  devoted 
as  she  was  at  the  moment  when  her  most  illustrious  citizen 
retired  from  the  toils  and  labors  of  public  life  to  repose  be- 
neath the  shade  of  her  majestic  forests.  Sir,  I  but  glance  at 
these  things.  I  refer  to  and  comment  on  the  Gwinn  and  Shel- 
byville  letters,  because  they  constitute  a  part  of  the  history  of 
this  bill,  the  original  pretext  for  its  introduction.  I  have  no 
disposition  to  revive  them  unnecessarily  in  the  public  remem- 
brance, but  a  reference  to  them  is  indispensible,  to  show  that 
the  original  pretext  was  as  groundless  as  the  present  necessity 
for  it,  under  this  Administration,  is  notoriously  insufficient. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  desire  now  to  reply  to  some  of  the  com- 
plaints made  by  one  of  my  colleagues  (Mr.  Bell)  against  the 
Democratic  party  of  our  State,  in  his  speech  on  the  Cumber- 
land road  bill.  On  that  bill,  scarcely  noticing  the  merits  of 
the  question,  its  constitutionality  or  expediency,  he  took  occa- 
sion to  denounce  the  past  and  present  administrations  "  as  a 
standing  fraud  on  the  country."  A  standing  fraud  in  having 
professed  to  be  opposed  to  internal  improvements ;  when,  in 
truth  and  in  fact,  it  only  pretended  and  feigned  such  an  oppo- 
sition just  before  an  election.  By  means  of  this  fraud 
the  Democratic  party  of  his  own  State  had  been  imposed  upon 
and  had  read  him  out  of  the  church  as  a  heretic  and  unbeliever. 
I  might  take  issue  with  him  on  all  these  points.  I  might  de- 
mand the  proofs  of  these  bold  assertions;  but  they  are  stale 
charges  which  have  been  often  refuted,  and  would  lead  me  off 
from  the  alleged  imposition  on  the  Democracy  of  Tennessee. 
Sir,  from  the  day  of  the  veto  message  of  President  Jackson  on 
the  Maysville  road  bill,  the  people  of  our  State  have  under- 
stood that  subject  well.  In  her  primary  assemblies,  in  her 
legislature,  and  in  her  convention  of  1835,  Tennessee  approved 
that  message.  All  her  public  men,  with  no  remembered  excep- 
tion, then  paid  homage  to  its  principles  and  doctrine;:.  I  do  not 
understand  my  honorable  colleague  as  now  questioning  its  pro- 
priety, but  as  resting  his  complaints  on  the  ground  that  he  has 
been  excommunicated,  not  for  any  vote  given,  or  speech  made 


30  CONGRESSIONAL   SPEECHES, 

here  in  favor  of  internal  improvements,  but  because  his  polit- 
ical associations  in  this  House  were  with  those  who  were  op- 
posed to  that  message.  I  fear  that  the  gentleman  has  in  some 
degree  mistaken  the  grounds  of  his  excommunication.  It  was 
because,  professing  to  be  opposed  to  the  whole  scheme  of  in- 
ternal improvements  himself,  he  enlisted  under  the  banner 
and  became  the  warm  and  zealous  advocate  of  those  who  were 
in  favor  of  them ;  exerting  his  great  talents  and  influence  to 
transfer  the  power  of  this  Government  to  hands  which  he  knew 
would  engage  in  these  wasteful  and  extravagant  expenditures. 
There,  sir,  was  the  true  point  of  his  offending.  He  became  the 
advocate  of  the  father  of  the  whole  system,  and  it  will  surely 
lend  nothing  to  his  restoration  to  his  old  political  church,  that 
he  is  now  ranged  under  the  banner  of  General  Harrison,  who 
stands  committed,  by  his  votes,  his  speeches,  and  his  letters, 
to  carry  out  the  same  policy.  Of  what  avail  was  it,  then,  that 
the  gentleman  took  his  pilgrimage  over  the  Ohio,  ranging 
about  in  search  of  some  Democrat  whose  peculiar  opinions  and 
position  in  reference  to  the  Cumberland  road,  would  seem  to 
save  him  from  the  imputation  of  evil  associations?  In  that 
pilgrimage  he  happened  to  come  across  my  excellent  friend 
from  Indiana  (Mr.  Howard,)  and  instantly  exclaimed,  "Behold 
what  good  Democratic  society  I  am  in !"  Sir,  it  is  not  from 
one  or  two  associations  that  we  judge  men;  it  is  from  their 
general  intercourse,  their  common  walk  and  conversation,  that 
we  judge  them.  If  the  gentleman  had  never  taken  up  Mr. 
Clay ;  if  he  will  now  surrender  General  Harrison ;  if  he  will 
come  out  from  among  the  ancient  and  bitter  enemies  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson  and  his  doctrines ;  "  if  he  will  come  out  from 
among  them  as  not  being  of  them,"  then  he  may  expect  for- 
giveness and  restoration  to  his  ancient  church.  I  repeat,  to 
his  ancient  church.  I  remember  when,  twenty  years  ago,  we 
were  both  youthful  and  zealous  members  of  the  same  church  ; 
admiring  the  same  men,  and  advocating  the  same  doctrines 
of  Democracy.  Soon  after  we  commenced  our  career,  the 
gentleman  passed  by  me,  as  in  merit  he  should  have  done,  and 
rose  upward  and  higher  in  public  observance  and  approbation, 
until  the  Democracy  of  Tennessee  claimed  him  as  one  of  her 
proudest  and  noblest  sons.     She  had  no  treasures  which  she 


ON  THE  FEEEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  31 

did  not  open  to  him,  and  no  honors  which  she  did  not  gladly 
confer.  In  this  early  and  high  career,  the  gentleman  had  no 
rival  in  the  esteem,  and  confidence,  and  admiration  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Tennessee — no  rival  save  one.  Not  that  one  whose 
fame  and  achievements  had  made  him  the  common  property 
of  the  nation;  (and  when  I  except  him,  none  can  be  at  a  loss 
to  know  to  whom  I  allude.)  I  know  that  the  actions  and  espe- 
cially the  motives  of  public  men  are  often  subjected  to  unjust 
misrepresentation  and  censure.  I  will  not,  therefore,  even 
allude  to  those  that  have  been  so  often  attributed  to  the  gen- 
tleman, further  than  to  say,  that  from  the  period  of  his  last 
unsuccessful  competition  here  for  the  honors  which  you  now 
enjoy,  suspicion  followed  suspicion  like  the  shadows  of  the 
passing  cloud,  until  the  Democracy  of  Tennessee  was  forced 
into  the  reluctant  belief  that  the  ardor  of  the  gentleman  had 
greatly  abated,  if  his  affections  were  not  totally  estranged  from 
her.  His  separation  was  the  work  of  time — not  accomplished 
at  once  by  any  sudden  and  overt  act  of  defection.  But  though 
gradual,  it  was  nevertheless  complete,  thorough,  undeniable, 
and  final.  It  was,  on  that  very  account,  the  more  prejudical. 
There  never  was  an  hour  when  the  Democracy  of  our  State 
could  not  have  given  up  the  gentleman  and  half  a  score  of  oth- 
ers like  him,  and  still  have  moved  onward  unchecked  and  un- 
harmed by  the  loss.  But  by  this  slow  and  gradual  process  he 
carried  off  with  him  hundreds  and  thousands  of  confiding 
friends,  who  would  have  sacrificed  any  thing  sooner  than  sus- 
pect his  devotion  to  the  true  and  genuine  principles  of  De- 
mocracy. 

Here  may  be  found  the  true  cause  of  those  dreadful  disasters 
and  defeats  which  the  gentleman  and  his  friends  sustained  in 
the  last  summer's  election.  A  generous  and  confiding  people 
had  followed  the  gentleman  into  the  support  of  Judge  White 
for  the  Presidency ;  they  had  returned  members  to  the  General 
Assembly  to  help  out  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  object; 
they  had  sent  here  almost  an  entire  representation  favorable  to 
his  wishes.  So  ingenious  and  artful  was  the  gentleman's  with- 
drawal from  the  Republican  ranks,  that  before  the  people  were 
aware  of  it  they  were  enlisted  in  their  primary  assemblies,  in 
their  Legislature,  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  in  fact  every  where. 


32  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

in  accomplishing  the  political  purposes  of  the  gentleman  and 
his  friends. 

But,  sir,  all  these  precautions  and  preparations  would  not 
do.  In  spite  of  them,  Judge  White's  pretensions  weakened  as 
the  election  approached.  When  it  was  over,  the  failure  was 
so  great,  the  discomfiture  so  complete,  that  the  people  of  Ten- 
nessee began  seriously  to  inquire  why  and  how  it  was  they 
had  been  so  much  deceived.  They  had  voted  for  Judge  White, 
as  a  Republican  or  Democrat — as  a  Jackson  man — a  better 
Jackson  man  than  Mr.  Van  Buren.  In  giving  that  vote,  she 
stood  undaunted  at  the  polls,  ready  to  deny,  in  the  face  of  the 
whole  world,  that  she  intended  either  to  desert  her  principles, 
or  to  separate  herself  from  the  other  Democratic  States  of  the 
Union.  Proud  in  the  consciousness  of  these  truths,  when  that 
vote  was  afterward  challenged,  she  looked  to  those  leaders 
who  had  instigated  her  to  the  act  to  stand  forth  and  vindicate 
Jier  before  the  world.  But,  sir,  what  was  her  surprise,  her  deep 
mortification,  when  those  leaders  refused  to  do  so — when  those 
very  leaders  proclaimed  that  she  had  changed — that  she  had 
left  Jackson  and  his  doctrines — that  she  had  separated  herself 
from  the  other  Democratic  States  of  the  Union.  When  they 
went  even  farther  than  this — when  they  called  on  her  not  to 
recede ;  that  she  had  gone  too  far ;  that  retreat  was  impossi- 
ble, and  that  henceforward  she  must  range  herself  under  the 
banner,  the  so  often  rejected  banner,  of  Henry  Clay,  of  Ken- 
tucky !  Sir,  the  annunciation  was  astounding.  What  had  only 
been  suspected,  was  now  openly  avowed  !  What  was  at  first 
only  hinted  at,  in  obscure  and  misty  prophecy,  now  stood  forth 
in  full  and  undoubted  fulfilment ! 

[Here  Mr.  C.  H.  Williams  rose  and  denied  that  Judge  White  had  ever 
changed  his  opinions  on  any  important  political  principles,  and  called  on 
his  colleague  to  point  them  out,  if  he  meant  to  impute  them  to  that  distin- 
guished individual,  now  no  more. 

Mr.  Brown  replied,  he  was  not  then  discussing  the  political  opinions  of 
adge  White,  but  endeavoring  to  explain  and  adjust  certain  charges  of  his 
other  colleague  (Mr.  Bell,)  against  the  Democracy  of  Tennessee;  his 
business  was,  therefore,  with  the  living,  and  not  with  the  dead.  Beside 
this,  Mr.  Brown  said  he  did  not  mean  to  allow  this  debate  to  take  any 
ction  which  would  enable  that  gentleman  to  raise  a  false  issue  in  the 
v  ise,  and  represent  him  as  disturbing  the  repose  and  invading  the  sanctity 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  33 

of  the  grave.    He  hoped  he  was  too  well  acquainted  with  his  business  to  be 
taken  in  that  way.] 

From  the  hour  when  the  gentleman  (Mr.  Bell,)  about  five 
miles  south  of  Nashville,  at  a  dinner  occasion,  admitted  that 
he  was  in  favor  of  Mr.  Clay,  the  people  of  Tennessee  began 
to  take  the  alarm.  Many  of  them,  like  my  honorable  colleague 
from  the  Bedford  district,  began  to  suspect  that  they  had  been 
betrayed ;  betrayed  by  men,  too,  in  whose  political  and  personal 
fidelity  they  would  have  intrusted  their  lives.  My  colleague 
(Mr.  Watterson)  first  came  into  public  life  when  he  was 
scarcely  eligible  to  its  honors,  and  when  the  excitement  in  our 
State  in  favor  of  Judge  White  was  at  its  highest  pitch.  Young, 
ardent,  and  confiding,  he  never  permitted  himself  to  distrust 
the  assurances  given  by  the  friends  of  Judge  White,  that  he 
and  Mr.  Van  Buren  were  of  the  same  political  party;  and  that 
all  that  was  stable  in  principle,  or  honorable  and  consistent  in 
character,  must  be  lost,  before  either  could  join  the  opposition. 
Under  these  assurances  he  united  himself  to  the  White  party, 
and  it  was  not  until  he  saw  the  flag  of  Mr.  Clay  "  floating 
aloft  in  the  breeze,"  and  borne  lustily  by  those  very  men  on 
whose  assurances  he  had  relied,  that  he  abandoned  that  party, 
and  returned  to  his  position  in  the  Jackson  ranks.  Under  the 
explanation  which  he  has  just  given,  the  rebuke  of  my  col- 
league (Mr.  Gentry)  fell  harmless  at  his  feet. 

The  same  explanation  belongs  to  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
others  in  Tennessee,  who,  like  him,  refused  to  leave  the  Jack- 
son party,  and  to  go  over  to  the  arm3  of  the  opposition ;  an  oppo- 
sition then  headed  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  Daniel  Webster,  and 
Henry  Clay ;  I  say  then,  not  now.     These  great  leaders  of  the 
opposition  no  longer  bear  about  them  the  insignia  of  com- 
mand.    They  have  fallen  back  as  mere  subalterns  in  the  ranks 
of  Federalism,  giving  up  the  command  to  what  they  know  to 
be  feebler,  but  hope  may  prove  more  available  hands.     This, 
I  believe,  is  conformable  to  what  was  at  one  period  the  Roman 
practice ;  not  to  select  their  ablest  generals  to  command  their 
armies,  but  rather  to  choose  those  who  had  proved  themselves 
most  fortunate.     But,  sir,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  complain  of 
this  strange  selection  of  a  commander-in-chief  for  the  opposi- 
tion ;  but  to  inform  my  honorable  colleague  that  it  was  the 

4 


34  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

discovery  that  Tennessee  was  to  be  transferred  to  that  opposi- 
tion, whoever  might  be  its  commander-in-chief,  that  sacrificed 
so  many  of  his  friends  in  the  laeft  election.  It  was  this  that 
made  them  drop  one  by  one  by  his  side,  reducing  to  a  bare 
majority  of  one,  that  proud  and  faithful  band  of  friends  that 
used  to  surround  him  on  this  floor.  The  gentleman  portrayed 
these  losses  in  most  touching  and  eloquent  lamentation,  but 
seemed  wholly  at  a  loss  how  to  account  for  them. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  not  done  with  the  associations  of  my 
colleague  yet,  nor  with  his  charge  against  the  Democracy  of 
Tennessee,  for  having  excommunicated  him  on  account  of  these 
associations.  It  is  the  theme  of  reiterated  complaint  that,  du- 
ring the  last  summer,  he  was  denounced  throughout  the  State 
as  a  Federalist,  and  that  he  was  doomed  to  see  his  friends  fal- 
ling in  all  directiqns  around  him  under  the  same  charge.  While 
I  do  not  become  his  accuser  in  this  particular,  I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  I  have  witnessed  nothing  in  his  associations,  during 
the  present  session,  at  all  calculated  to  relieve  him  from  such 
a  charge.  What  were  those  associations  in  the  election  of 
Speaker?  I  saw  him  of  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Adams,)  I  saw 
another  (Mr.  Saltonstall,)  whose  connexion  with  the  Hartford 
convention  is  now  notorious ;  and  yet  another  (Mr.  Reed,)  an 
avowed  Federalist,  I  believe,  during  the  war  and  ever  since ; 
all  supporting  the  gentleman  for  that  important  office.  So  also, 
I  believe,  did  every  other  Federalist  on  this  floor.  They  all 
came  flocking  to  his  standard.  These  were  ugly  associations 
for  Republican  Tennessee  to  witness.  Mark,  sir,  I  do  not  say 
that  all  who  voted  for  him  were  Federalists ;  far  from  it ;  but  I 
do  mean  to  say  that  as  far  as  I  have  learned  the  politics  of 
gentlemen  here,  every  Federalist  on  this  floor  voted  for  him. 
There  never  was  such  a  party  in  this  or  perhaps  any  other 
country  like  the  Federal  party.  Though  often  subdued  and 
conquered,  it  never  disbands.  In  the  darkest  hour  of  its  peril, 
existing  in  secret  and  mysterious  organization,  it  will  suddenly 
reappear,  and,  uniting  itself  to  one  of  two  nearly  balanced 
competitors,  decide  the  victory  in  his  favor,  claiming  the  fu- 
ture control  of  his  actions  as  the  reward  of  its  services.  In- 
satiate in  its  demands  for  power,  when  rendered  odious  by  its 
usurpations,  it  often  assumes  some  sacred  form  or  some  conse- 


ON  THE  FREEDOM  OF  ELECTIONS.  35 

crated  name,  and  by  the  very  impudence  of  the  assumption, 
again  recommends  itself  to  public  favor.  I  feel  sorry  that  my 
colleague  should  have  been  ever  charged  with  having  united 
himself  with  any  such  party  ;  but  I  must  regard  it  as  ominous 
that,  at  the  moment  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  Democratic 
ranks,  he  should  have  found  so  many  of  that  party  ready  to 
receive  him  with  open  arms,  and  to  help  him  onward  to  one  of 
the  highest  offices  of  the  Republi^.  I  trust  that  I  make  this 
allusion  to  my  colleague's  having  been  run  as  the  Whig  can- 
didate for  Speaker,  and  to  his  having  been  supported  by  the 
Federal  portion  of  that  party,  without  personal  indelicacy;  I 
advert  to  it  only  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  parties  in  this 
House.  The  office  of  Speaker  is  worthy  the  ambition  of  any 
man,  and  I  do  not  call  in  question  his  qualifications  to  dis- 
cbarge its  duties.  But  I  will  not  dwell  further  on  this  point;  I 
come  to  another  that  has  opened  a  gulf  between  him  and  the 
Democracy  of  Tennessee,  deep  and  wide  as  ever  separated 
Dives  from  Lazarus.  I  mean  the  gentleman's  course  in  rela- 
tion to  Abolition  petitions.  Sir,  not  only  have  the  people  of 
Tennessee,  but  of  the  South  generally,  looked  upon  that  course 
with  infinite  pain  and  mortification.  It  was  a  course  new  and 
unexpected  to  them  ;  a  course  not  sanctioned  by  any  thing  in 
his  former  conduct,  and  only  to  be  accounted  for  by  his  anxiety 
to  place  himself  in  a  proper  attitude  or  condition  to  support  the 
Harrisburg  nomination.  I  do  not  make  the  point  now  that  the 
nominee  of  that  convention  is  an  Abolitionist,  but  it  is  notorious 
and  undeniable  that  his  nomination  over  Mr.  Clay  was  effec- 
ted by  abolition  influence.  The  exulting  and  fanatic  shout  was 
instantly  raised  "  that  another  President  shall  never  come  from 
a  slaveholding  State."  I  allude  to  this  nomination  in  order 
that  I  may  account  for  the  unexpected  position  now  taken  by 
my  honorable  colleague  in  favor  of  receiving,  referring,  and 
reporting  on  these  petitions. 

[  After  Mr.  Brown  had  gone  into  an  examination  of  the  former  course 
cf  Mr.  Bell  on  this  subject  (not  here  inserted,)  he  was  called  to  order  by 
Mr.  Cooper  and  Mr.  Banks.  The  Speaker  decided  that  Mr.  Brown  was 
giving  the  debate  too  wide  a  range  to  be  relevant  to  the  bill  under  dis- 
cussion.] 

Mr.  Brown  said  he  would  conform  with  pleasure  to  the  sug- 


36  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

gestion  of  the  Speaker,  and  conclude  what  he  had  to  say  by 
desiring  the  House  not  to  give  this  bill  the  go-by,  but  now  that 
it  had  been  fully  discussed  and  examined,  to  pronounce  a 
solemn  and  deliberate  judgment  either  for  or  against  it. 

The  vote  was  then  taken, 

"  Shall  the  bill  be  rejected?"— Ayes  108,  noes  53. 

So  the  bill  was  rejected,  by  the  following  vote : 

YEAS— Messrs.  Judson  Allen,  Hugh  J.  Anderson,  Atherton,  Banks, 
Beatty,  Beirne,  Blackwell,  Briggs,  Aaron  "V.  Brown,  Albert  G.  Brown, 
Burke,  William  O.  Butler,  John  Campbell,  Carr,  Carroll,  Casey,  Chap- 
man, Clifford,  Coles,  Conner,  Mark  A.  Cooper,  William  R.  Cooper, 
Craig,  Cushing,  Dana,  John  Davis,  John  W.  Davis,  Doan,  Doig, 
Dromgoole,  Duncan,  Earl,  Eastman,  Ely,  Fine,  Floyd,  James  Garland, 
Gerry,  Goggin,  Hammond,  Hand,  John  Hastings,  Hawkins,  Hillen, 
Holleman,  Hook,  Hopkins,  Howard,  Thomas  B.  Jackson,  Jameson,  Cave 
Johnson,  Nathaniel  Jones,  Keim,  Kemble,  Kille,  Leadbetter,  Leonard, 
Lewis,  Lucas,  McClellan,  McKay,  Mallory,  Marchand,  Medill,  Miller, 
Montanya,  Montgomery,  Samuel  W.  Morris,  Newhard,  Parrish,  Parmen- 
ter,  Parris,  Paynter,  Petrikin,  Pope,  Prentiss,  Ramsey,  Reynolds,  Rives, 
Robinson,  Edward  Rogers,  Ryall,  Samuels,  Shaw,  Shepard,  John  Smith, 
Thomas  Smith,  Starkweather,  Steenrod,  Strong,  Stuart,  Sumter,  Swear- 
ingen,  Taylor,  Francis  Thomas,  Jacob  Thompson,  Turney,  Underwood, 
Vroom,  David  D.  Wagener,  Warren,  Watterson,  Weller,  Wick,  Jared 
W.  Williams,  Henry  Williams,  Joseph  L.  Williams,  and  Worthing- 
ton— 108. 

NAYS — Messrs.  Andrews,  Barnard,  Bell,  Bond,  Brockway,  Anson 
Brown,  Calhoun,  William  B.  Campbell,  Chinn,  James  Cooper,  Crans- 
ton, Davies,  Garret  Davis,  Deberry,  Dellet,  Edwards,  Evans,  Everett, 
Fillmore,  Gentry,  Giddings,  Patrick  G.  Goode,  Hiland  Hall,  Hawes, 
Henry,  Hoffman,  Hiram  P.  Hunt,  Kempshall,  Lincoln,  Morgan,  Calvary 
Morris,  Osborne,  Palen,  Randall,  Randolph,  Rariden,  Ridgway,  Russell, 
Saltonstall,  Sergeant,  Simonton,  Slade,  Truman  Smith,  Stanly,  Talia- 
ferro, Toland,  Triplett,  Peter  J.  Wagner,  John  White,  Thomas  W. 
Williams,  Lewis  Williams,   Christopher  H.  Williams,  and  Wise — 53. 


SPEECH, 

On  the  hill  to  charter  the  "  Fiscal  Bank  of  the  United  States' 
Delivered  inthe  House  of  Representatives,  August  4,  1841. 


Mr.  Chairman  :  I  engage  in  the  discussion  of  this  bill  with 
the  most  profound  and  unaffected  reluctance;  a  reluctance 
greatly  increased  by  that  inexorable  argument,  which  no 
refutation  can  silence — that  discussion  is  useless ;  the  people 
having  decreed,  in  the  recent  election,  that  a  national  bank 
shall  be  established.  No  man  bows  with  a  more  cheerful  sub- 
mission than  I  do  to  the  clear  and  decided  mandates  of  the 
popular  will  on  all  subjects  of  constitutional  legislation.  But, 
on  the  present  occasion,  I  must  be  allowed  most  respectfully 
to  question  the  fact  that  the  people  of  this  country  ever  have 
pronounced  such  a  decree  in  favor  of  a  bank.  When  or  where 
was  such  a  decree  pronounced?  On  what  record  of  party 
proceedings  is  it  to  be  found?  Can  you  find  it  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Harrisburg  convention,  where,  of  all  other 
places,  it  should  have  been  found?  No,  sir,  it  is  not  there. 
Not  one  word  was  said  by  that  assembly,  showing  that  either 
of  its  nominees  was  in  favor  of  a  United  States  Bank.  Will 
you  search  for  it  in  Virginia,  every  page  of  whose  history  will 
furnish  some  illustrious  name  to  chide  you  for  the  foul  in- 
sinuation that  she  had  been  faithless  to  the  principles  of  her 
Jeffersons,  her  Taylors,  her  Roanes,  and  her  Pendletons  ? 
No,  sir;  do  not  go  to  Virginia,  the  land  of  my  birth  and  the 
home  of  my  youth,  for  what  the  most  errant  of  all  her  sons 
(Mr.  Rives)  has  never  ventured  to   assert. 

Can  you  find  this  decree  in  favor  of  a  bank  in  North 
Carolina,  whose  vote  for  the  late  President  was  so  over- 
whelming as   to    astonish  even  those  who  gave  it?     No,  sir ; 


38  OXGRESSIONAL   SPEECHES. 

for  one  oi  ner  own  citizens,  now  rewarded  for  his  real  or 
supposed  influence  in  bringing  about  this  result,  by  a  seat 
in  the  Cabinet,  standing  in  the  presence  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  the  people  of  that  State,  pronounced  the 
charge  that  General  Harrison  was  in  favor  of  a  national 
bank  to  be  false — utterly  false.  In  Georgia,  so  great  was 
the  variety  of  opinions  as  to  what  were  the  sentiments  of 
General  Harrison  on  the  subject,  that  it  would  be  the  very 
height  of  disingenuousness  to  attribute  his  vote  in  that 
State  to  any  known  preference  in  favor  of  such  an  institu- 
tion. In  Alabama,  the  great  whig  convention  of  that  State, 
in  a  very  able  appeal  to  their  constituents,  not  only  aver- 
red the  fact,  but  collated  the  proofs,  to  show  General  Harri- 
son's opposition  to  a  national  bank  on  every  ground  what- 
soever. That  the  bank  question  was  more  or  less  involved 
in  that  election  everywhere,  I  do  not  mean  here  to  deny ; 
but  that  it  was  blended  with  others,  of  local  and  exciting 
influences,  is  equally  manifest.  Who  in  this  hall  would  be 
bold  enough  to  aver  that  in  the  Keystone  or  the  Empire 
State  the  election  turned  exclusively  on  the  question  of 
bank  or  no  bank?  It  is  notorious  that  the  other  ques- 
tions mingled  in  the  canvass,  and  that  anti-masonry  and 
abolition  contributed  in  no  small  degree  in  producing  the 
results  in  those  States.  So  it  was  in  Ohio  and  Indiana, 
where  the  bank  question  may  be  regarded  as  the  least 
distinctive  and   controlling  one  in  the  canvass. 

Yet,  sir,  in  the  face  of  these  well  known  facts,  we  have 
been  silenced  by  the  previous  question — restricted  to  a  sin- 
gle hour  in  debate — all  the  ancient  forms  and  rules  of  those 
who  have  preceded  us  have  been  broken  down;  and  this 
measure,  with  others,  literally  forced  upon  us,  in  rapid  suc- 
cession and  indecent  haste  ;  all  under  the  plea  that  dis- 
cussion is  useless — that  the  season  for  debate  and  argu- 
ment has  gone  by ;  and  all  that  remains  is  but  to  register 
the  solemn  decrees  of  the  people  in  favor  of  such  an  insti- 
tution ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  is  one  thing  which  that  inexorable  ma- 
jority, by  which  all  these  things  have  been  said  and  done,  has 
never  yet  pretended  to  deny.   It  is  well  known  that  the  Ameri- 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  39 

can  people  are  greatly  divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  best  mode 
or  form  of  banking  in  this  country — whether  by  individuals, 
by  joint-stock  companies,  by  banks  owned  by  the  General 
Government,  by  banks  belonging  exclusively  to  the  States,  or 
by  banks  jointly  owned  and  governed  by  the  States  and  the 
General  Government  in  partnership.  It  is  known  that  all 
these  various  plans  have  their  advocates,  numerous  and  pow- 
erful, in  every  State  of  the  Union.  Now,  it  is  not  pretended 
that  these  various  plans  were  presented,  and  their  relative 
merits  passed  upon  by  the  people,  in  the  recent  election.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  known  that  the  canvass  was  otherwise  con- 
ducted. No  specific  plan  was  presented — no  details  were 
gone  into.  The  evils  of  a  depreciated  currency,  the  necessity 
of  having  a  great  regulator  to  control  the  local  institutions, 
constituted  the  theme  of  every  orator,  whose  generalities  were 
intended  to  embrace  every  one  who  might  be  in  favor  of  any 
species  of  banking. 

Nay,  I  will  venture  to  record  another  fact,  which  never  has 
been  nor  can  be  successfully  controverted :  that,  in  a  very 
large  majority  of  cases,  the  travelling  rhetors  of  the  dominant 
party  expressly  disclaimed  the  old  United  States  Bank  as  the 
sample  or  model  of  the  new  one.  They  scarcely  ever  con- 
troverted the  objections  taken  by  General  Jackson,  and  which 
they  knew  the  American  people  had  over  and  over  again  sus- 
tained. This  was  emphatically  true  in  the  State  of  Tennes- 
see. There,  every  public  man  in  our  legislative  halls,  as  well  as 
in  the  convention  which  revised  our  constitution,  had  sustained 
and  approved  those  objections.  Our  whole  population,  whether 
devoted  to  General  Jackson  or  to  Judge  White,  had  condemned 
the  old,  or  the  Biddle  Bank,  as  it  was  commonly  called,  every- 
where and  on  all  occasions.  Hence  it  was  that  no  public 
debator  in  that  State,  as  far  as  I  have  ever  known  or  heard, 
ever  distinctly  avowed  the  old  bank  to  be  his  favorite  model 
of  a  new  one.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  there  is  now,  or  ever  has 
been,  one-third  of  that  population  who  would  say  that  it  was 
their  model  of  a  national  bank.  They  had  formed  a  deep  and 
fixed  abhorrence  of  that  institution  ;  and  when  looking  out  for 
relief  under  the  commercial  revulsion  of  1837,  they  looked 
to  an  institution  owned  by  the  United  States,  governed  by  the 


40  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

United  States  ;  its  profits  going  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States ;  with  each  State  having,  and,  when  able,  owning  a 
branch  and  applying  its  profits  to  its  own  State  purposes. 
Sir,  this  now  is,  and  has  been  for  years,  the  plan  or  model  of 
a  bank  which  has  made  so  many  bank  converts  in  that  State. 

I  will  adduce  only  one  other  proof  to  show  that  the  people 
in  the  last  election  did  not  pronounce  any  such  decree  as  is 
now  pretended, — that  the  whole  argument  is  a  gross  attempt 
to  pervert,  and,  in  fact,  to  falsify  their  proceedings.  It  is  the 
authority  of  President  Tyler  himself,  a  party  in  that  election. 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  now  lying  before  me,  he  has  ex- 
pressly told  us  :  "What  is  now  to  be  regarded  as  the  judg- 
ment of  the  American  people  on  the  whole  subject,  [the  banks 
and  the  currency,]  I  have  no  accurate  means  of  determining, 
but  by  appealing  to  their  more  immediate  representatives. 
The  late  contest,  which  terminated  in  the  election  of  General 
Harrison  to  the  presidency,  was  decided  on  principles  well 
known  and  openly  declared ;  and  while  the  sub-treasury  re- 
ceived in  the  result  the  most  decided  condemnation,  yet  no 
other  scheme  of  finance  seemed  to  have  been  concurred  in." 

Sir,  the  President  was  right — the  nation  knows  he  was  right. 
The  people,  if  they  decided  against  the  sub-treasnry,  did  not 
decide  for  a  United  States  Bank;  and  least  of  all  did  they 
decide  in  favor  of  such  a  bank  as  this,  modelled  and  fashioned 
as  it  is,  with  slavish  exactness,  after  the  old  United  States 
Bank.  Since  the  election,  that  institution  has  expired,  amid 
the  groans  and  sufferings  of  those  who  reposed  in  it  a  too  fatal 
confidence  to  the  last.  Its  inherent  defects  and  hideous  cor- 
ruptions are  now  lying  open  and  bare  to  public  inspection. 
The  committee  who  reported  this  bill  have  profited  nothing  by 
its  past  history,  and  have  taken  no  warning  from  its  disastrous 
overthrow.  They  still  hold  it  up,  in  the  person  of  this  bill,  to 
the  admiration  of  the  American  people,  and  challenge  for  it 
their  approbation  for  twenty  years  to  come ! 

Regarding,  then,  as  I  do,  this  whole  subject  as  fairly  open 
for  debate,  I  shall  proceed  to  the  discussion  of  the  bill,  with 
that  candor  and  impartiality  which  its  importance  deserves. 

My  first  objection  to  this  bank  is,  that  it  is  a  charter  of  in- 
corporation, which  I  hold  this  Government  to  be  incapable  of 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  4  * 

granting.  The  constitution  contains,  as  is  admitted,  no  ex- 
press grant  of  such  authority.  The  records  of  the  conven- 
tion, now  published  to  the  world,  clearly  show  that  the  power 
to  create  corporations  generally  was  proposed,  referred,  re- 
ported on,  debated,  and  the  vote  taken  by  yeas  and  nays,  and 
expressly  refused  by  the  convention.  Can  any  thing  be  more 
conclusive  than  this?  We  are  now  searching  for  some  con- 
genial spot  in  this  constitution  where  we  can  locate  this  power. 
We  must  find  it,  or  the  passage  of  this  bill  will  be  a  rank  and 
perjured  usurpation.  Well,  we  search  for  it — we  cannot  find  it 
in  the  constitution.  We  go  back  to  the  journals  and  records 
of  those  who  formed  it.  There  we  find  it  was  refused  in 
every  form  and  in  every  shape  in  which  it  could  be  proposed. 
What  then?  We  are  told  to  look  for  it  by  implication.  Impli- 
cation, sir,  against  the  express  and  positive  record  of  the  con- 
vention !  Ay,  to  implication ;  for  we  are  told  that  the  conven- 
tion declined  putting  down  this  power  plainly  and  distinctly  in 
the  constitution,  lest  the  people — particularly  those  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  were  very  hostile  to  banks — might  see  it,  and  re- 
fuse to  ratify  the  constitution. 

Sir,  this  is  the  argument  universally  employed  to  overturn 
this  important,  this  omnipotent  fact.  Let  me  repeat  it.  If 
the  convention  had  given  this  power  plainly,  the  people  would 
have  seen  it,  and  would  have  rejected  the  constitution.  It 
was  therefore,  designedly  left,  to  be  claimed  by  intendment  or 
implication  in  aftertimes,  when  it  would  be  too  late  for  the  peo- 
ple either  to  reject  the  constitution  or  to  prevent  its  exercise. 
Now,  sir,  what  is  all  this,  but  the  imputation  of  a  design  in 
the  framers  of  the  constitution  to  practice  the  most  reprehen- 
sible fraud  on  their  constituents — constituents  whose  noble 
and  gallant  deeds  in  the  war  of  independence,  then  just  ter- 
minated, eminently  entitled  them  to  precisely  such  a  form 
of  government  as  they  might  freely  choose,  without  being 
duped  and  deceived  in  the  selection.  This  imputation  against 
the  venerable  fathers  of  the  republic  is  too  foul  and  monstrous, 
and  throws  us  back  on  the  records  of  the  convention,  contain- 
ing a  clear,  express,  and  oft-repeated  rejection  of  the  power 
of  establishing  a  bank  or  creating  a  corporation.  Mr.  Chair- 
man, in  the  absence  of  an  express  grant,  there  is  a  potency 


42  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

in  those  records  second  only  to  the  constitution — a  potency 
that  outweighs  a  thousand-fold  the  opinions  of  individuals, 
however  eminent — a  potency  which  cannot  be  destroyed,  but 
by  the  degradation  and  infamy  of  those  whom  America  has 
most  honored  and  most  revered. 

The  location  of  the  principal  bank  within  the  District  of 
Columbia  is  but  a  poor  evasion  of  this  constitutional  objection. 
A  vast  and  mighty  power — not  expressly  granted  to  Congress, 
as  the  Legislature  of  the  whole  Union,  and  which,  when  dis- 
tinctly proposed,  was  expressly  refused — is  now  claimed  to 
have  been  conferred  by  that  clause  which  gives  it  exclusive 
legislation  over  the  little  District  of  Columbia.  Our  legis- 
lation may  be  exclusive,  as  against  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
by  whom  the  Territory  was  ceded  ;  and  still  be  limited  in  its 
objects,  and  restricted  by  the  general  prohibitions  of  that  in- 
strument. But,  without  insisting  on  this  principle,  and  cer- 
tainly without  abandoning  it,  I  assume  another,  about  which 
casuistry  itself  cannot  hesitate.  If  Congress  have  the  power 
of  exclusive  legislation  over  the  District  of  Columbia,  it  must 
be  for  as  well  as  in  the  District — local  in  its  objects,  and 
territorial  in  its  action.  To  seize  on  a  power  granted  for  such 
limited  and  special  purposes,  and  expand  it  over  a  mighty 
continent,  is  a  shameless  perversion  of  the  constitution — a 
mean  and  fraudulent  usurpation,  far  more  wicked  than  the 
boldest  interpolation  of  that  instrument  could  be.  Sir,  the 
little  dwarf  which  you  pretend  now  to  be  harmlessly  planting 
in  this  District,  will  presently  lift  his  giant  form  high  above  it ; 
and,  "  looking  abroad  over  this  empire  republic,  will  wave 
his  money  sceptre  over  crouching  sovereignties  and  a  prostrate 
people."  Sir,  do  not  believe  that  its  location  here,  where 
there  is  no  commerce,  was  intended  as  a  concession  to  consti- 
tutional scruples,  honestly  entertained  in  any  quarter  of  the 
Union.  No,  sir ;  it  was  to  bring  the  bank  in  sight  of  the 
White  House  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue ;  not  for  his 
benefit  who  now  inhabits  it,  but  for  his  whose  heart  pants  for 
its  occupancy,  and  whose  ambition  even  now  is  moving  heaven 
and  earth  for  its  attainment.  It  is  brought  here,  the  vile 
and  corrupting  instrument  of  party,  to  be  ever  at  hand,  ready 
and  willing  to  perpetuate  the  ascendency  of  those  who  gave 


OX  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  ** 

it  existence.  Heretofore,  the  political  has  been  separated 
from  the  money  power  of  the  nation.  Instead  of  a  union, 
there  has  been  a  war  between  them.  But  henceforward  there 
is  to  be  peace — alliance — partnership.  What  before  has  been 
fiction,  is  now  to  be  reality ;  the  sword  and  the  purse  are  to 
be  joined  in  united  potency,  to  strengthen  the  arm  of  execu- 
tive domination.  If  allowed  to  use  an  illustration  less  war- 
like than  the  last,  I  would  say, — this  fiscal  harlot,  banished 
under  the  preceding  administrations,  now  returns  from  her 
exile,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  her  deliverer,  ready  and  willing 
to  pay,  in  adulterous  gratitude,  the  guilty  price  of  her  ransom. 

My  next  point  of  objection  is,  that  this  is  a  charter  of  in- 
corporation of  individuals,  to  whom  the  effectual  control  of  the 
institution  is  conceded.  The  desire  of  gain  is  a  principle  so 
deeply  engraven  on  the  nature  of  man,  that  it  cannot  be  era- 
dicated. This  truth  is  nowhere  found  in  stronger  illustration 
than  in  the  business  of  banking.  The  more  paper  issued,  the 
greater  their  profits  ;  and  from  the  natural  propensity  to  which 
I  have  alluded,  they  are  sure  to  overleap  the  feeble  barriers 
of  their  charter,  and  to  issue  paper  far  beyond  their  ability  of 
redemption.  This  desire  for  excessive  profits ,  so  subtle  and 
insinuating,  never  has  been,  and  never  will  be,  successfully 
resisted.  It  is  the  real  cause  of  all  our  former  failures  in  the 
business  of  banking.  It  is  the  simple  but  potent  principle 
that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  expansions  and  contractions 
of  our  paper  currency,  and  consequently  of  the  commercial 
revulsions  and  pecuniary  distresses  of  the  age.  This  cause 
must  be  removed  before  the  evil  can  be  remedied.  Withdraw 
the  business  of  banking  from  the  hands  of  individuals — take 
it  away  from  the  suggestions  of  individual  avarice — and  you 
at  once  eradicate  the  fruitful  cause  of  all  our  former  failures, 
in  this  charter,  the  fact  that  the  nation  is  to  own  one-third  of 
the  capital  can  make  no  possible  difference.  Just  as  sure  as 
two-thirds  are  more  than  one-third,  just  so  sure  will  individual 
avarice  govern  the  institution,  and  cause  it  to  run  the  same 
profligate  career  with  its  great  prototype,  and  perish,  like  it, 
amid  the  stench  and  rottenness  of  its  own  corruption. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  take  time  here  to  mention   another 
objection  which  I  have  to  this   bank,  as  well  as  to  all  others 


44  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

owned  by  individuals,  and  conducted  by  them  for  their  own 
benefit.  I  regard  banking,  or  the  making  of  paper-money,  as 
the  most  enormous  speculation  of  modern  times.  I  allude  not 
simply  to  the  rate  of  interest,  but  to  all  the  advantages,  direct 
and  collateral,  which  those  enjoy  who  have  ready  access  to  the 
funds,  and  who  have  control  over  the  banks.  These  enormous 
profits,  accumulating  in  the  coffers  of  individuals,  introduce  a 
proud  and  bloated  aristocracy  in  our  land,  and  thereby  destroy 
that  plain  republican  equality  of  rights  and  of  fortune  which  I 
have  ardently  desired  might  be  long  preserved  in  our  country. 
I  would  join  in  no  crusade  against  that  wealth  which  may  be 
acquired  by  honest  industry  and  sagacious  enterprise ;  but  I 
will  forever  protest  against  those  special  privileges  which  give 
to  one  favored  class  exclusive  advantages  over  all  others,  and 
which  must  introduce  into  our  young  and  rising  country  all  the 
aristocratic  distinctions  of  the  old  world.  Other  objections 
exist  to  individual  or  joint-stock  banking,  which  do  not  fall 
within  the  range  of  the  present  debate,  and  which  time  will  not 
allow  me  to  enumerate.  Repudiating,  as  I  have  done,  all  indi- 
vidual and  joint-stock  banking  as  banks  of  issues,  there  remain 
only  two  other  modes  of  making  paper-money  in  this  country. 
These  are,  either  by  the  nation  in  the  aggregate,  or  by  the  sev- 
eral States  of  the  Union,  excluding  individuals  from  all  parti- 
cipation whatsoever.  Neither  of  these  forms  of  banking  is 
now  before  us;  and  the  few  precious  moments  of  the  brief  hour 
which  your  rule  allows,  will  not  admit  of  their  discussion.  I 
leave  them,  therefore,  with  this  declaration, — that  I  reject  every 
plan  of  banking  by  the  General  Government,  and  infinitely 
prefer  seeing  a  paper  currency  emanating,  if  at  all,  from  the 
respective  States  of  the  Union ; — not  from  corporations  of  in- 
dividuals created  by  them  ;  but  from  banks,  owned  exclusively 
by  the  States  ;  governed  by  them;  and  all  the  profits  made  by 
them  received  and  enjoyed  by  all  the  people  of  the  States. 
As  a  member  of  Congress,  I  have  nothing  to  say  or  do  for  or 
against  such  a  system  of  banking  by  the  States :  the  question 
belongs  exclusively  to  themselves  ;  but,  as  an  American  citizen, 
I  am  free  to  declare  that,  of  all  the  different  modes  of  banking 
which  have  been  heretofore  tried  or  proposed,  I  prefer  such  a 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  45 

system  by  the  States  as  I  have  mentioned.     But  I  return  from 
this  digression  to  further  objections  to  this  bill. 

The  creation  of  this  corporation  is  the  introduction  of  a  new 
power  into  our  form  of  government,  more  potent  than  any 
other  known  to  the  constitution.  The  legislative,  judicial,  and 
executive  departments  constitute  the  three  great  powers  of 
the  government.  But  here  is  a  power  more  potent  than  any — 
I  had  almost  said  than  all  of  them  put  together.  Neither  the 
Executive  nor  Judiciary  can  directly  reach  one  in  ten  thousand 
of  our  population.  In  reference  to  currency,  the  Legislature 
only  is  authorized  to  coin  and  regulate  the  value  of  gold  and 
silver,  which  the  industry  of  individuals  has  dug  out  of  the 
earth,  or  procured  in  the  course  of  lawful  commerce.  But 
here  is  a  power  that  can  make  and  circulate  a  currency  many 
times  greater  in  amount  than  all  the  gold  and  silver  on  this 
continent.  By  doing  so,  they  are  enabled  to  take  the  real 
money  of  the  country  out  of  circulation ;  lock  it  up,  and  sub- 
stitute their  own  manufacture  for  it ;  and  thus  bring  their  powers 
to  bear  upon  almost  every  individual  of  our  seventeen  millions 
of  population.  This  new  artificial  person,  making  and  then 
wielding  the  capital  of  a  whole  continent,  regulates  and  con- 
trols the  value  of  all  the  property,  real  and  personal,  and  of  all 
the  labor,  mechanical,  agricultural,  and  commercial,  of  a  mighty 
people.  It  is  made  to  regulate  the  currency  ;  that  is,  to  set  up 
and  pull  down  other  institutions ;  to  make  money  plenty  or 
scarce ;  to  make  property  high  or  low,  according  to  its  own 
good  pleasure.  On  every  discount  day,  nine  men  are  to  as- 
semble in  this  city,  on  whose  fiat  hang  the  fortunes  and  des- 
tinies of  this  whole  people.  They  send  forth  their  high  com- 
mands, east,  west,  north,  and  south,  to  their  subordinates  in 
the  branches ;  and  in  twenty  days  a  whole  continent  lies  pros- 
trate at  their  bidding.  The  friends  of  this  bill  tell  us  that  these 
orders  may  go  forth  bearing  the  blessings  of  prosperity  and 
plenty  on  their  wings.  If  this  be  true,  is  it  not  necessarily  true, 
also,  that  they  may  be  laden  with  curses — with  blight,  and  mil- 
dew, and  death  to  the  hopes  and  business  of  the  country?  A 
power  so  mighty,  either  for  evil  or  for  good,  is  now  to  be  sprung 
into  existence ;  and  no  other  power  is  to  stay,  or  check,  or  con- 
trol its  tremendous  action,  for  twenty  years  to  come. 


46  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

I  pause,  to  demand  if  the  people  of  this  country  would  be 
willing  to  confer  so  great  a  power  even  on  the  Executive  of 
their  own  choice?  Would  they  bestow  it  on  any  nine  members 
within  these  walls  ?  or  on  any  nine  men  who  ever  lived  in  this 
country,  however  illustrious  their  names  or  eminent  their  ser- 
vices ?  If  they  would  not,  can  they  be  willing  that  a  number 
of  capitalists, — living  at  great  distances  from  them,  and  who 
never  had  any  sympathy  with  them  in  their  wants,  their  suffer- 
ings, and  their  labors, — shall  get  together  and  appoint  nine 
agents — for  themselves,  not  for  the  country — for  their  own 
benefit,  not  that  of  the  people — to  regulate  the  currency,  which 
is  to  control  the  price  of  all  the  property  and  all  the  labor  of 
the  country  ?  Sir,  it  cannot  be  so.  It  cannot  be  that  the 
American  people,  so  jealous  of  their  rights,  are  prepared  to 
surrender  them  to  a  mercenary  oligarchy — the  more  odious, 
because  owing  no  responsibility  to  the  people  whom  they  plun- 
der and  destroy.  Sir,  if  it  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  regulate 
the  currency,  (which  I  deny,)  let  Congress  do  so  itself,  by  its 
own  officers,  appointed  by  and  responsible  to  them,  as  they  in 
their  turn  are  responsible  to  the  people :  but  do  not,  I  pray  you, 
make  an  assignment  of  your  duties  to  this  avaricious,  mercen- 
ary, soulless  corporation,  which  will  have  its  high  interest  and 
large  dividends,  although  the  people  were  starving  for  the 
bread  of  life.  I  pray  you  perpetrate  no  such  wicked  and  hor- 
rid thing  in  this  land.  Make  your  own  bank;  found  it  on  your 
own, resources  ;  govern  it  by  officers  of  your  own  selection,  if 
you  can  do  so  under  the  constitution.  Let  all  the  profits  of  the 
eperation  enure  to  the  benefit  of  all  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  Do  this,  bad  as  it  would  be,  rather  than  form  a  corpo- 
ration in  which  you  are  to  be  a  subordinate  partner,  impotent 
for  all  purposes  of  control ;  and  in  which  you  will  be  compelled 
by  your  stock-jobbing  partners  to  inflict  the  most  heart-rending 
exactions  and  oppressions  on  the  people  you  represent.  Sir, 
the  accumulated  aversion  of  many  years  to  a  degraded  and 
degrading  partnership  like  this,  induces  me  to  repeat  the  im- 
ploration,  that,  if  it  be  your  duty  to  regulate  the  currency, 
do  it  yourself y  without  the  agency  and  partnership  of  this 
corporation. 

What  necessity  is  there,  let  me  ask,  for  this  amazing  and 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  47 

dangerous  delegation  of  power?     Is  it  the  too  great  scarcity 
of  gold  and  silver  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  growing  com- 
merce of  this  country  ?     This  bank  with  its  thirty  millions  will 
not  permanently  add  one  solitary  dollar  to  the  specie  on  this 
continent — not  one  solitary  dollar.     Is  it  to  make  paper-money 
more  abundant?    Why,  sir,  that  is  the  very  disease  of  which 
this  country  has  been  dying  for  years.      The  excessive  paper 
issues  of  1834,  '35,  and  '36,  are  known  to  have  produced  the 
revulsion   of  1837.     The  veriest  quacks  and  impostors  now 
admit  this.     The  process  of  diminution  has  been  going  on  ever 
since  1837,  with  slow  and  painful  but  invaluable  success.     It 
was  the  universal  prescription  for  the  disease,  that  we  should 
lessen  the  amount  of  paper,  and  bring  it  down  to  a  fair  and 
reasonable  proportion  to  the  precious  metals.     We  have  fol- 
lowed that  prescription,  until  the  country  is  evidently  emerging 
from  that  state  of  indebtedness  induced  by  extravagance  and 
speculation,  from  which  at  one  period  we  awfully  feared  it  never 
could  be  rescued.  But,  after  all,  and  in  spite  of  all,  we  have  rode 
out  the  storm;  we  have  neared  the  port;  we  have  gained  sight 
of  the  land.     And  shall  we  be  again  thrown  back  on  the  same 
wide  ocean  of  paper-money,  from  which  we  vainly  hoped  soon 
to  be  rescued?     Look   to  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  paper- 
money  now  in  circulation ;  then  look  to  the  beggarly  amount 
of  specie  provided  for  its  redemption ;  and  say  if  there  be  not 
gross  quackery,  if  not  something  worse,  in  the  present  propo- 
sition to  increase  the  amount  some  sixty  or  seventy  millions. 
Let  me  employ  another  illustration  of  our  present  condition. 
We  have  been  for  years  drunken  by  extravagance  and  excess 
in  every  thing;  and  now  that  the  care  of  sincere  and  kind 
friends  has  nearly  restored  us  from  the  vile  debauch,  one  of  our 
old  bottle  companions  intrudes  his  prescription  upon  us,  and  in- 
sists that  we  shall  run  the  same  round  of  guilty  dissipation  as 
before.     And,  sir,  it  is  astonishing  to  see  with  what  ready  and 
even  eager  willingness  the  infatuated  patient,  breaking  away 
from  the  custody  of  his  best  friends,  will  follow  the  counsels    of 
those  who  will  but  delude  and  destroy  him. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  turn  away  from  this  bank,  as  the  means 
of  relief  to  the  people,  and  as  an  institution  to  regulate  the 
currency  and  general  business  of  the  country.      I  wish  now  to 


48  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

consider  it  as  "  the  Fiscal  Bank  of  the  United  States," — a  bank, 
as  its  name  imports,  necessary  and  proper,  for  the  Government, 
in  some  way  or  other,  in  the  collection,  safekeeping,  and  dis- 
bursements of  the  public  revenue. 

The  eighth  section  of  the  first  article  of  the  constitution  is 
an  enumeration  of  the  powers  of  Congress ;  amongst  which, 
that  of  collecting  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises,  is  one  of 
them.  At  the  close  of  the  same  section,  it  is  declared  that 
"  Congress  may  make  all  laws  necessary  and  proper  for  car- 
rying into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers 
vested  by  this  constitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof."  This  is  the 
congenial  spot  on  which  the  bank  has  ever  delighted  to  locate 
itself.  The  false  pretence  that  it  is  necessary  to  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  collection  of  its  taxes  and  duties,  is  seized  upon 
to  give  it  existence  ;  whilst  in  truth  and  in  fact  it  is  solely  in- 
tended for  the  benefit  of  the  commercial  business  of  the  coun- 
try, and  to  subserve  the  interest  of  stock  jobbers,  speculators, 
and  all  others  who  live  by  their  wits,  instead  of  the  honest 
labor  of  their  hands.  I  repeat  that  it  is  a  false  pretense,  for 
the  experiment  has  been  now  repeated — which  was  first  made 
in  the  earliest  and  purest  days  of  the  republic — of  collecting, 
keeping,  and  disbursing  the  public  revenue,  without  the  agency 
of  any  bank  whatsoever  ; — an  experiment  which  Washington 
first  adopted;  which  Jefferson  subsequently  recommended 
should  be  again  adopted ;  which  Judge  White  maintained  to 
be  entirely  practicable;  and  which  Mr.  Bell  declared  could 
do  no  great  good  or  harm  to  any  of  the  great  interests  of  this 
country.  That  experiment  has  been  actually  tried,  tested, 
proved,  for  more  than  one  entire  year,  with  eminent  and 
complete  success.  The  much  abused  sub-treasury  has  de- 
monstrated that  a  bank  is  not  necessary  to  carry  on  the  finan- 
cial concerns  of  this  nation.  Although  condemned,  as  the 
President  says  it  has  been,  it  retires  full  of  honor,  carrying 
with  it  a  proud  justification  of  its  friends,  and  casting  back  upon 
its  enemies  a  triumphant  refutation  of  all  their  predictions  of  its 
entire  failure. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  not  even  the  pretense  of  such  a  necessity 
is  sustained  by  the  provisions  of  this  bill.    The  bank  is  not 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  49 

to  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  collection  at  all.  Your  collec- 
tors of  the  customs  and  your  receivers  at  the  land  offices  are 
still  to  be  continued,  and  every  dollar  is  to  be  collected  by  them 
as  heretofore.  Nor  is  it  true  that  the  bank  is  to  be  charged 
with  the  payment  or  disbursement  of  the  revenue :  these,  under 
the  warrants  of  your  Treasurer,  are  to  be  made  by  your  pay- 
masters, pursers,  and  other  public  officers,  as  they  have  been 
from  the  foundation  of  the  Government.  All  that  this  fiscal 
concern  is  to  be  employed  by  the  Government  to  do,  is  to  have 
the  simple  custody  of  our  revenue  during  the  brief  period  be- 
tween its  collection  and  disbursement.  And  is  this  all  the 
necessity — all  the  propriety  for  this  mighty  institution  ?  Cer- 
tainly it  is,  all — all.  Simply  to  keep  your  surplus  revenue, 
when  all  agree  that  there  should  be  no  surplus ;  and  to  keep  it 
for  a  little  while,  until  you  can  find  some  creditor  willing  to  take 
it  off  your  hands.  What  a  mighty  edifice  to  be  reared  on  so 
small  a  foundation !  a  mountain  resting  on  a  pebble ! 

Unable,  as  it  is  now  falsely  pretended,  to  keep  our  own  reve- 
nue, we  are  called  upon  to  establish  this  ponderous  agency  for 
that  purpose,  and  for  that  purpose  only.  We  must  advance 
certainly  ten  millions — probably  sixteen  millions — to  set  this 
agency  in  operation.  I  mistake,  sir;  we  do  not  advance  the 
money;  we  have  it  not  to  advance.  We  must  borrow  it  at 
home  or  abroad,  and  pay  an  interest  of  at  least  half  a  million 
of  dollars.  Ten  millions,  at  five  per  cent.,  make  that  sum; 
and  if  we  have  to  take  the  sixteen  millions  mentioned  in  the 
bill,  it  will  be  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million.  This  ama- 
zing sum  we  must  pay  annually  for  the  benefits  of  this  won- 
derful agency.  What  was  the  cost  of  the  Independent  Treas- 
ury, which  we  are  so  often  told  the  people  have  rejected?  It 
did  not  exceed  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum.  Fifty  thou- 
sand against  five  hundred  thousand  !  Yes,  sir,  carry  this  fact 
home,  faithfully  home  to  the  people, — that  for  this  new  Fiscal 
Bank  they  must  pay  at  least  ten  times  as  much  as  for  the  Inde- 
pendent Treasury.  What  a  commentary  on  the  economy  of 
this  reformed  and  reforming  administration !  Where  we  for- 
merly paid  ten  dollars  for  the  temporary  custody  of  our  reve- 
nues, we  are  to  pay  now  one  hundred  ;  and  where  one  hundred, 
we  must  now  pay  one  thousand  i     You  point  me  in  vain  to  the 

5 


50  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

profits  and  dividends  of  this  Fiscal  Bank,  for  the  reimbursement 
of  all  this  interest.  The  fate  of  the  old  bank,  and  of  hundreds 
of  others  now  lying  like  shattered  and  broken  wrecks  over  the 
whole  ocean  of  incorporated  insolvency,  will  furnish  ample 
refutation  to  the  argument.  With  all  their  profits  and  nearly 
all  of  their  original  capital  wasted  and  plundered,  what  hopes 
can  we  have  of  future  profits  and  dividends  from  this  institu- 
tion, made  by  party,  and  whose  proceeds  will  be  prostituted 
and  wasted  for  the  vilest  purposes  of  party  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  on  a  slender  necessity,  such  as  I  have 
described,  that  the  present  charter  is  asked  for  with  convul- 
sive anxiety.  It  was  on  such  a  foundation  as  this  that  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  old  bank  was  sustained  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States ;  not  that  the  judges  thought  such 
an  institution  to  be  necessary  and  proper,  for  that  they  have 
never  decided;  but  that  if  Congress  thought  it  so,  it  was  not 
for  them  to  decide  to  the  contrary ; — that  it  was  the  exclusive 
province  of  Congress  to  decide  on  that  question,  and,  having 
done  so  by  passing  the  charter,  it  was  not  their  province  to  set 
aside  that  decision.  The  celebrated  opinion  of  Chief  Justice 
Marshall,  in  the  case  of  the  Bank  of  Maryland,  "  has  this  ex- 
tent— no  more." 

And  yet  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  in  this  debate,  has 
pressed  the  argument  on  the  House  that  this  was  the  decision 
of  the  tribunal  of  the  last  resort,  and  that  all  the  other  depart- 
ments of  the  Government  must  yield  and  conform  to  its  adju- 
dication. Sir,  it  is  in  exact  accordance  with  its  decisions  that 
this  House  is  now  considering  this  very  question  of  constitu- 
tionality. They  have  declared  that  it  is  our  business  to  de- 
cide that  question,  and  not  theirs.  If  more  than  this  is  claimed 
to  have  been  decided  by  that  court,  I  deny  its  authority  to  have 
gone  further.  We  are  co-ordinate  and  co-equal  with  the  judi- 
ciary. It  is  our  business  to  prescribe  the  law;  it  is  theirs  to 
administer  it  and  enforce  it  between  individuals.  But  the  con- 
stitution is  above  both.  Each,  in  its  own  department,  must 
construe  for  itself,  and  neither  can  control  or  lord  it  over  the 
other.  That  solemn  oath  which  you  administered  to  every 
member  on  this  floor,  embraced  nothing  but  the  constitution, 
and  had  nothing:  to  do  with  those  commentaries  which  the  judi- 


ON  THE  FISCAL  BANK  BILL.  5 1 

ciary  may  have  made  upon  it.  The  oath  was  personal ;  the  in- 
fraction of  the  constitution  would  be  personal,  and  the  high  penal 
sanctions  of  that  oath  would  be  personal,  both  in  time  and 
eternity. 

But  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Botts)  claims  more 
than  a  Popish  infallibility  for  this  tribunal.  Their  decisions 
are  to  be  above  and  to  supersede  the  constitution.  Instead  of 
that  sacred  instrument  being  laid  on  our  table,  in  order  to  be 
before  us  for  perpetual  reference,  it  is  to  be  laid  upon  the  shelf, 
or  hid  in  some  obscure  recess  of  this  vast  Capitol,  and  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Supreme  Court  substituted  in  its  stead.  This, 
sir,  is  what  the  gentleman's  argument  would  do  for  the  consti- 
tution. What  does  it  do  with  the  President  ?  The  gentleman 
declares  that,  in  the  face  of  the  decisions  of  that  court,  the 
President  has  no  right  to  think  about  the  high  injunctions  of  the 
constitution ;  that  the  court  has  thought  for  him — has  expoun- 
ded for  him ;  and  it  is  his  bounden  duty  to  conform,  with  implicit 
obedience,  to  its  commands.  The  same  argument  leads  to 
the  stultification  of  this  House  and  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  But,  sir,  I  am  not  surprised  at  it.  Throughout  this 
session  we  have  been  told  that  we  had  no  right  to  debate',  now 
we  are  informed  (what  it  was  easy  to  anticipate)  that  we  are 
not  to  think  adversely  to  the  Supreme  Court. 

Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  freedom  of  debate  has  been  cloven 
down ;  the  liberty  of  thought  has  been  denied  to  this  House 
and  to  the  President ;  and  these  two  great  departments  of  our 
Government  are  proclaimed  to  be  the  mere  agents  to  register 
the  edicts  of  the  judiciary.  It 

Sir,  I  am  admonished  that  I  have  but  three  minutes  more  to 
protest  against  the  passage  of  this  bill, — three  minutes  more 
to  protest  against  the  monstrous  doctrines  by  which  it  is  sus- 
tained. Sir,  I  have  no  use  for  them,  but  to  give  them  back  to 
that  inexorable  majority  by  whom  they  were  granted. 


NOTES 


Mr.  B.  does  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  the  journals  of  the 
convention  show  that  the  proposition  to  authorize  Congress  to  charter  a 
bank  was,  eo  nomine,  submitted  to  the  convention  and  rejected.  That  there 
was  such  a  proposition,  however,  is  satisfactorily  established  by  other  tes- 
timony. He  submits  the  following  from  Mr.  Jefferson's  Memoirs  :  "  March 
the  11th,  1798.  When  the  bank  bill  was  under  discussion  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  Judge  Wilson  came  in,  and  was  standing  by  Baldwin. 
Baldwin  reminded  him  of  the  following  fact  which  passed  in  the  grand  con- 
vention. Among  the  enumerated  powers  given  to  Congress,  was  one  to 
erect  corporations.  It  was  on  debate  struck  out.  Several  particular  powers 
were  then  proposed.  Among  others,  Robert  Morris  proposed  to  give  to  Con- 
gress a  power  to  establish  a  national  bank.  Gouverneur  Morris  opposed 
it  \  observing  that  it  was  extremely  doubtful  whether  the  Constitution  they 
were  framing  could  ever  be  passed  at  all  by  the  American  people  ;  that  to 
give  it  its  best  chance,  however,  they  should  make  it  as  palatable  as  possible, 
and  put  nothing  into  it  not  very  essential,  which  might  raise  up  enemies. 
That  his  colleague  (Robert  Morris)  well  knew  that  a  bank  had  been  the 
great  bone  of  contention  betweea  the  two  parties  of  the  State,  from  the 
establishment  of  their  constitution  ;  having  been  erected,  put  down,  erect- 
ed again,  as  either  party  preponderated  ;  that,  therefore,  to  insert  this  power 
would  instantly  enlist  against  the  whole  instrument,  the  whole  of  the  anti- 
bank  party  of  Pennsylvania :  whereupon  it  was  rejected,  as  was  every 
other  special  power,  except  that  of  giving  copy-rights  to  authois,  and  pat- 
ents to  inventors.  The  general  power  of  incorporating  being  whittled  down 
to  this  shred.     Wilson  agreed  to  the  fact." 

The  argument  here  submitted,  as  to  the  rejection  of  this  power,  is  fully 
sustained,  however,  by  the  following  extract  from  the  journal  of  the  conven- 
tion.    (1st  vol.  Elliott's  Debates,  page  278.) 

"  Saturday,  August  18,  1787. — The  following  additional  powers  proposed 
to  be  vested  in  the  legislature  of  the  United  States,  having  been  submitted 
to  the  consideration  of  the  convention,  &c,  were  referred,  &c.  The  fifth 
proposition  of  the  series  was  as  follows  : 

"To  grant  charters  of  incorporation  in  cases  where  the  public  good  may 
require  them,  and  the  authority  of  a  single  State  may  be  incompetent. 

"  The  12th  of  the  same  series  was  in  the  following  words  : 

"  To  grant  charters  of  incorporation." 


CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES.  53 

These  two  propositions  being  in  the  same  series,  offered  by  the  same  in- 
dividual at  the  same  time,  cannot  be  considered  as  tautological,  but  as  really- 
intended  for  different  objects.  The  first  should  be  regarded,  most  probably, 
as  intended  for  corporations  for  cutting  canals  or  other  improvements,  where 
several  States  were  interested,  and  other  similar  purposes.  The  second,  as 
intended  expressly  for  conferring  banking  powers  ;  that  being  the  almost 
universal  mode  of  creating  banks  in  those  days  as  well  as  now.  If  the  se- 
cond proposition  did  not  look  exclusively  to  banks,  it  certainly  included 
them,  as  did  also  the  first  proposition. 

On  Wednesday,  September  12th,  the  Committee  of  Revision  report  a 
revised  draught  ofthe^Constitution,  from  the  various,  irregular,  and  detached 
decisions  which  had  been  made,  in  which  they  do  not  propose  to  confer  on 
Congress  the  right  of  creating  corporations  in  either  of  the  ways  proposed 
in  the  above  series. 

On  the  13th  (the  next  day  after  the  report)  it  was  moved  and  seconded 
"That  the  House  proceed  to  the  comparing  of  the  report  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Revision,  with  the  articles  which  had  been  agreed  to  by  the 
House,  and  to  them  referred  for  arrangement ;"  and  the  same  was  read  by 
paragraphs,  compared,  and  in  some  places,  corrected  and  amended.  This 
was  to  be  carefully  done,  in  order  to  see  if  they  had  arranged  it  correctly, 
according  to  the  decisions  of  the  House.  The  report  does  not  embrace 
corporations,  in  either  of  the  forms  mentioned  ;  hence,  it  is  fair  to  conclude 
they  had  been  rejected  by  the  House,  and  therefore  rejected  by  the  com- 
mittee in  their  compilation.  On  the  14th  of  September,  whilst  this  pro- 
cess was  going  on,  they  reached  the  eighth  section  of  the  first  article. 
No  one  complained  that  anything  had  been  omitted  by  the  Committee  of 
Revision;  that  they  had  left  out  improperly  "the  right  to  create  corpora- 
tions," in  either  of  the  forms  above  mentioned.  But  a  new  proposition,  to 
grant  letters  of  incorporation  for  canals,  &c,  was  presented,  and  voted  down 
by  the  convention  :  Yeas,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  Georgia — 3;  Nays, 
the  other  eight  States.  This  was  either  a  new  proposition  to  procure  the 
power,  or  it  is  a  summary  mode  of  identifying  the  old  ones  which  were  re- 
jected by  the  above  vote. 

Mr.  B.,  in  his  comparison  of  the  relative  expensiveness  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Treasury  and  the  Fiscal  Bank,  has  placed  the  annual  expenses  of 
the  former  entirely  too  nigh.  One-half  of  the  amount  stated  would  have 
been  much  nearer  the  mark. 


SPEECH, 

On  Remitting  the  fine  on  General  Jackson — Delivered  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  Jan- 
uary 8,  1844. 


Mr.  Pratt,  of  New  York,  introduced  the  following  Resolu- 
tion : 

Whereas  the  Legislatures  of  eighteen  States  of  this  Union,  containing, 
at  the  last  census,  about  fifteen  millions  out  of  the  seventeen  millions  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  have  instructed  their  Senators  and  re- 
quested their  Representatives  to  refund  the  fine  imposed  on  General  Andrew 
Jackson  by  Judge  Hall :  And  whereas  strong  expressions  of  public  opin- 
ion have  been  made  in  favor  of  the  same  measure,  in  the  remaining  States 
of  the  Union  :     Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  at  four  o'clock,  this  day,  all  debate  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole  House  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  on  House  bill  No.  1,  to  refund  the 
fine  imposed  on  General  Jackson  shall  cease,  and  the  committee  shall  pro- 
ceed to  vote  upon  such  amendments  as  may  be  pending,  or  as  may  be  of- 
fered to  said  bill,  and  then  report  the  same  to  the  House,  with  such  amend- 
ments as  have  been  agreed  to  by  the  Committee. 

Which  said  resolution  was  adopted  ;  and  thereupon  the 
House  resolved  itself  into  a  Committee  of  the  Whole  House 
on  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  proceeded  with  the  considera- 
tion of  said  bill. 

Mr.  Aaron  V.  Brown  obtaining  the  floor,  said:  That 
it  had  not  been  his  intention  to  say  one  word  in  favor  of  the 
passage  of  this  bill.  So  far  as  he  was  concerned,  he  had  in- 
tended to  let  its  fate  depend  on  the  known  wishes  of  the 
American  People,  and  the  express  instructions  of  seventeen 
or  eighteen  of  the  sovereign  States  of  this  Union ;  but  chiefly 
on  the  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana,  declaring, 
that  if  this  fine  was  not  refunded  by  Congress  at  the  present 
session,  the  Legislature  of  that  State  would  feel  bound  to  re- 
fund it  themselves — a  noble  resolution,  reflecting  everlasting 


ON  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  55 

honor  on  those  who  adopted  it.  But  this  bill  had  been  oppos- 
ed by  arguments  so  extraordinary,  that  he  now  felt  it  to  be 
his  duty;  as  one  of  the  Representatives  of  Tennessee,  to  make 
reply  to  them. 

The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Grider]  had  asserted, 
that  if  this  bill  were  passed,  General  Jackson  would  never 
touch  a  dollar  of  the  money.  Is  the  gentleman  sure  of  that? 
Why  not,  then,  vote  for  this  bill,  and  let  it  stand  out  as  a  bright 
and  shining  example  of  a  nation's  gratitude  and  justice?  It 
would  be  cheap  enough,  I  am  sure,  said  Mr.  B.  to  meet  that 
gentleman's  views  of  national  economy.  In  one  point  of  view, 
that  gentleman  was  right.  General  Jackson  would  never  receive 
this  money  as  a  mendicant  at  your  door.  He  will  never  touch 
it  if  he  must  come  here,  according  to  the  allusion  once  made 
on  this  floor  by  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  [Mr.  Adams] 
like  the  old  Roman  General,  begging  from  door  to  door,  hold- 
ing out  his  wooden  trencher,  and  crying  "  Date  obolurn  Belis- 
ario"  No,  no.  It  is  the  amendment  offered  by  his  enemies 
that  would  bring  the  greatest  General  of  our  age,  as  Belisa- 
rius  was  of  his,  to  this  degrading  attitude.  This  bill  but  re- 
turns to  General  Jackson  his  own  money,  extorted  from  him  by 
a  cruel  and  unjust  Judge,  for  a  noble  and  praiseworthy  action. 
In  this  light  General  Jackson  will  receive  it.  He  will  receive 
it  with  pride  and  gratification.  He  will  look  upon  it  as  the 
last  act  of  his  countrymen,  paying  homage  to  justice,  and  bear- 
ing testimony,  for  posterity,  to  the  purity  and  patriotism  of  his 
motives. 

The  same  gentleman  [Mr.  Grider]  contended  that  the  glory 
of  New  Orleans  would  by  tarnished  by  the  passage  of  this  bill; 
that  it  was  a  common  glory,  in  which  he  and  his  constituents 
participated,  and  therefore  he  was  opposed  to  passing  the  bill. 
Surely  that  gentleman,  nor  his  constituents,  would  wish  to  take 
the  glory,  and  keep  the  money  too  !  Ought  he  not  rather  to 
have  concluded,  that  if  the  infamy  of  fining  General  Jackson 
one  thousand  dollars  for  achieving  so  much  glory,  should  be 
considered  by  posterity  as  a  common  infamy,  he  and  his  con- 
stituents, if  they  refuse  to  refund,  might  be  considered  as  par- 
ticipating in  it?  He  was  pleased  further  to  remind  us  that  we 
had  assembled  here  for  the  purpose  of  general  legislation,  such 


56  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

as  our  constituents  and  the  country  now  stood  in  need  of.  Why, 
said  he,  should  we  bring  up  this  antiquated  and  almost  forgot- 
ten subject — the  fine  of  General  Jackson,  imposed  almost  thirty 
years  ago?  Surely  the  gentleman  and  his  party  do  not  mean 
to  plead  the  statute  of  limitation?  To  plead  it  in  the  face  of 
fourteen  millions  of  the  people  of  this  country,  who  have  com- 
manded this  thing  to  be  done?  to  plead  it,  too,  against  a  great 
act  of  national  justice  and  honor  like  this?  Never,  never,  if 
you  are  really  in  earnest  in  claiming  any  share  in  the  glory  of 
that  great  man's  achievements. 

Mr.  Chairman,  (said  Mr.  B.,)  I  now  wish  to  advert  to  some  of 
the  extraordinary  arguments  of  one  of  my   colleagues,  [Mr. 
Peyton,]  the  honored  Representative  of  the  illustrious  patriot 
who  is  the  subject  of  this  debate.     What,  sir,  did  he  tell  us? 
Why,  that  he  should  vote  for  this  bill,  but  that  it  was  the  great- 
est humbug  of  the  age.     And  will  the  gentleman  really  vote 
for  a  humbug?     First  put  down  the  solemn  declaration  on  the 
permanent  records  of  the  nation,  to  go  down  the  stream   of 
time  to  all  future  generations,  that  it  is  all  a  humbug,  and  yet 
that  he  is  willing  to  vote  for  iti     But  how  did  he  make  it  out 
a  mere  humbug?     He  said  many  fanciful  things  about  the  ivy 
twining  around  some  sturdy  pillar  for  support ;  and  the  misle- 
toe  drawing  its  nutriment  from  some  majestic  hickory;  and, 
finally,  more  than  insinuated,  that  the  whole  purpose   of  this 
bill  was  to  advance  the  political  fortunes  of  Martin  Van  Buren. 
How,  then,  can  he  vote  for  it?     How  can  he  vote  for  any  bill 
brought  forward  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  the  fortunes 
"  of  a  mere   parasite,"  whom  he  despises  and  abhors?    No, 
my  colleague  does  injustice  to  the  friends  of  this  bill,  and  to 
the  people  of  this  country.     Their  purposes  are  open,   direct, 
and  avowed,  to  do  justice  to  the  man  who  exposed  his  life  and 
his  all  in  defence  of  his  country,  and  was  then  fined  one  thou- 
sand dollars  for  it.     They  ask  for  the  passage  of  this  bill  the 
unanimous  vote  of  Congress — of  all  men,  and  of  all  parties; 
and  it  never  would  have  been,  never  could  have  been  a  party 
measure,  but  for  one  of  the  parties  of  this  country  having  met 
it  with   such   fixed   and   never-dying   opposition.     That   has 
made  it,  and  may  continue  to  make  it,  a  party  measure  ;  but 
let  not  that  be  charged  to  the  friends  of  this  bill.     He  com- 


ON  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  57 

plained  that  the  fame  of  General  Jackson  was  not  likely  to  be 
best  preserved  by  those  who  had  taken  it  in  keeping.  Would 
he  have  us  to  put  it  in  the  keeping  of  the  enemies  of  this  bill? 
Of  the  gentleman  from  Georgia,  who  had  proposed  to  amend  it 
by  eulogizing  Judge  Hall?  Of  the  gentleman  from  New 
York,  or  of  Massachusetts,  or  even  my  colleague  himself,  after 
the  speech  he  has  made?  God  forbid  that  the  good  name  and 
fame  of  General  Jackson  should  be  entrusted  to  such  guardians 
as  these.  But  my  colleague  says,  that  as  those  who  set  them- 
selves up  to  be  the  especial  friends  of  General  Jackson  on  this 
occasion  desire  it,  he  will  vote  for  it,  although,  in  his  opinion, 
it  will  strike  down  the  noblest  monument  of  his  fame.  Can  it 
be  possible  that  the  gentleman  would  really  do  that?  Would 
he  remove  even  the  smallest  pebble  that  lies  at  the  base  of 
that  noble  monument?  Let  him  but  convince  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  [Mr.  Barnard]  and  the  gentleman  from  Mas- 
sachusetts [Mr.  Adams]  that  such  will  be  the  effect  of  passing 
this  bill,  and  they  will  instantly  turn  to  its  support,  and  become 
co-workers  with  my  colleague  in  striking  down  that  monument 
which,  until  now,  I  had  fondly  hoped  was  dear  and  sacred  to 
every  American  bosom. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  is  something  strange  and  contradictory 
in  the  position  of  both  my  colleagues,  [Messrs.  Peyton  and 
Dickinson,]  in  reference  to  this  bill.  They  have  both  made 
speeches  against,  and  yet  declare  that  they  mean  finally  to 
vote  for  it.  Their  speeches  are  one  way,  their  votes  are  to  be 
another.  How  is  this  anomaly  to  be  accounted  for?  Sir,  in 
making  their  speeches  they  have  consulted  their  heads,  but  in 
casting  their  votes  they  have  consulted  their  hearts — all  the 
pulsations  of  which  tell  them  to  give  back  this  ill-gotten  money. 
I  think,  too,  it  may  be  accounted  for  on  another  principle.  In 
the  State  of  Tennessee,  whatever  divisions  of  opinion  may 
exist  on  the  great  political  questions  of  the  day,  there  is  every- 
where and  amongst  all  classes,  but  one  fixed,  steady  and  im- 
movable sentiment  of  gratitude  and  devotion  to  the  man  "  who 
has  filled  the  measure  of  his  country's  honor."  These  gentle- 
men cannot,  will  not,  I  had  almost  said  dare  not,  however  in- 
sensible to  fear,  do  violence  to  this  universal  sentiment. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  now  to  reply  to  the  extraordinary 


58  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

speech  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  [Mr.  Barnard.] 
Extraordinary  for  its  general  bad  temper.  Why  so  hot  and 
fiery  on  this  occasion,  and  yet  so  cold,  and  even  stoical,  on  all 
others?  I  fear  the  gentleman  has  grown  jealous  of  the  vener- 
ble  gentleman  who  sits  near  him,  [Mr.  Adams,]  and  is  deter- 
mined hereafter  to  outrival  even  him  in  turbulence  and  violence. 
Why,  too,  was  the  gentleman  so  nearly  presumptuous,  if  not 
arrogant,  in  the  language  which  he  was  pleased  to  employ  on 
this  occasion?  Addressing  himself  to  the  known  majority  on 
this  floor,  some  of  them  of  his  own  party,  he  proclaimed  we 
should  not  pass  this  bill  ignorantly,  or  in  our  ignorance,  or  some 
such  courteous  language  as  that.  Sir,  have  seventeen  or 
eighteen  States  of  this  Union  instructed  this  bill  to  be  passed 
in  ignorance?  Are  the  people  of  this  country,  nine-tenths  of 
whom  are  in  favor  of  it,  are  they  too,  in  ignorance?  Is  that 
overwhelming  majority  of  this  House,  which  the  gentleman 
himself  said  he  knew  could  and  would  pass  the  bill,  were  they 
about  to  do  it  in  ignorance?  I  submit  it  to  him  whether  there 
is  not  danger  that  those  who  do  not  know  him  personally — his 
great  modesty — may  be  ungenerous  enough  to  consider  such 
language  as  presumptuous  and  even  arrogant. 

But  whilst  adverting  to  the  gentleman's  manner  and  lan- 
guage, let  me  give  you  another  specimen  of  that  high  courtesy  in 
debate,  which  distinguishes  an  American  statesman.  Address- 
ing himself  again  to  the  known  majority  here,  some  of  them 
his  own  party  friends,  he  was  pleased  to  say,  "  You  cannot 
lick  this  bill  into  any  shape  that  will  make  it  acceptable  to  the 
other  branch  of  Congress."  How  chaste  and  elegant,  and  even 
classical,  is  such  language!  "  You  cannot  lick  this  bill  into  any 
shape!"  But  I  pass  from  all  this,  to  the  matter  and  substance 
of  that  gentleman's  speech. 

With  great  earnestness,  he  demanded  to  know  why  this  fine 
was  not  remitted  during  the  administration  of  General  Jackson 
or  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Let  me  answer  him  by  putting  to  him 
another  question  :  Would  he  and  his  party  have  voted  for  it 
at  any  time?  Would  the  old  Federal  party  have  ever  voted 
for  it?  Would  those  who  refused  to  cross  a  State  line,  to  meet 
and  give  battle  to  the  enemy  ;  would  those  who,  at  midnight 
on  the  high  cliffs  of  the  ocean,  hung  out  blue  lights  to  guide  the 


ON  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  59 

enemy  into  our  harbors,  that  they  might  burn  our  ships  and 
murder  our  people  ;  would  those  who  had  been  in  secret  con- 
ference with  John  Henry,  the  British  spy,  would  they  have 
voted  for  this  bill  at  any  time,  or  under  any  circumstances?  No, 
sir,  never.  The  glorious  victory  of  New  Orleans  not  only  drove 
the  British  army  from  our  coast,  but,  it  drove  a  British  spy 
from  the  bosom  of  our  country.  It  not  only  suppressed  the 
spirit  of  muntiny  and  revolt  in  a  small  portion  of  the  people 
of  Louisiana,  but  it  routed  and  dispersed  the  more  guilty 
traitors  at  Hartford.  All  these  would  have  opposed  the  remis- 
sion of  this  fine  at  any  and  all  times.  They  will  oppose  it  now. 
They  will  resort  to  every  device  to  defeat  it.  We  cannot  mould 
it,  or,  in  the  more  elegant  language  of  the  gentleman  from  New 
York,  we  cannot  lick  it  into  any  form  which  will  induce  them 
to  do  justice  to  the  greatest  captain  and  noblest  patriot  of  the 
age. 

Well,  Mr.  Chairman,  after  all,  what  is  the  great  constitu- 
tional argument  of  the  gentleman  against  the  passage  of  this 
bill?  It  is,  that  General  Jackson  had  no  right,  under  the  Con- 
stitution, to  declare  martial  law;  that,  consequently,  he  had  no 
right  to  arrest  Louallier  ;  and,  having  no  right  to  arrest  him, 
he  was  bound  to  obey  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  commanding 
him  to  bring  the  said  Louallier  before  the  court ;  and  for  not  so 
obeying,  he  was  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  court. 

Now,  all  this  I  deny,  and  maintain  that,  to  the  extent  Gen- 
eral Jackson  did  declare  and  enforce  martial  law,  he  had  a 
right  to  do  it,  under,  or  consistently  with,  the  Constitution. 
Not  that  the  Constitution  commands  martial  law  to  be  declared 
in  any  case,  but  that  it  permits,  or  allows  it  to  be  done,  in  pre- 
cisely such  cases  as  occurred  at  New  Orleans.  That  city  and 
its  environs  were  within  the  military  encampment  of  General 
Jackson.  His  outposts  and  sentinels  were  planted  around  it. 
Within  the  bounds  of  every  encampment,  military,  and  not 
civil,  law  must  prevail.  In  time  of  repose  and  safety,  military 
law  in  its  mildest,  and  lowest  grade,  but  in  time  of  war  and 
invasion  of  the  place  so  occupied,  military  law  in  its  most  rigor- 
ous form  ;  —  high  and  rigorous  in  exact  proportion  as  the 
peril  was  great  and  the  danger  imminent.  This  is  the 
principle ;    let   me   give  you   an    illustration :     A    nation    is 


60  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

about  to   be   invaded ;   you  post  your  army  at  some  moun- 
tain defile   where  you    can  more  successfully  repel  his  ad- 
vances.    Within   its   lines   are  a  few  shepherds'  huts.     Can 
these  go  in  and  out  as  they  please?     Can  they  pass  the  senti- 
nels of  your  army  without  permission,  and  so   carry,  if  they 
please,  secret  intelligence  to  the  enemy?     Cannot  the  Com- 
manding General  guard  against  such  danger,  by  suspending, 
for  the  time  being,  their  constitutional  right  of  locomotion?     I 
do  not  say  that  he  can  by  the  command  of  the  Constitution,  but 
I  maintain  that  he  may  by  its  permission.     So  if  his  encamp- 
ment include  a  village,   or   town,  or  great  city,  as   was   New 
Orleans.     Let  me  now  submit  another  case  to  illustrate  my 
opinions  :  Suppose,  during  the  siege,  the  owners  of  all  the  cot- 
ton bales,  anticipating  from  his  orders  that  he  contemplated 
their  use  in  the  formation  of  breastworks,  had  applied  to  Judge 
Hall,  or  some  State  Judge,  for  an  injunction  to  prevent  their 
removal  from  the  ware-houses,  alleging  that  they  were  private 
property  of  such  great  value  that  the  Commanding  General's 
private  fortune  would  be  totally  inadequate  to  the  payment  of 
their  probable  damage  or  destruction;  suppose  General  Jackson 
to  have  refused  obedience,  as  he  assuredly  would,  and  an  at- 
tachment for  contempt  had  been  issued,  returnable  on  the  mem- 
orable 23d  of  December,  the  time  of  the  first  battle.     On  that 
day  and  within  that  encampment  what  law  was  to  govern?  The 
civil  law  which  commanded  him  to  be  present  in  court,   or  the 
military   law,   which   commanded    him  to  be  present  on  the 
lines,  cheering  and  directing  his  army  to  triumph  and  to  victory? 
Sir,  in  that  case,  or  in  any  similar  one,  if  the  civil  law  was  to 
govern,  your  Commanding  General  might  have  been  pining 
in  a  dungeon  for  a  contempt  of  court,  whilst  the  enemy  was 
thundering  with  its  artillery  against  the  city. 

But,  sir,  it  matters  not  to  pursue  this  question  of  constitu- 
tional right  any  further ;  for  the  gentleman  expressly  admitted 
that  the  right  to  declare  martial  law  might  be  sustained  in  some 
cases  under  the  great  law  of  necessity.  But  I  contend  that  in 
no  case  does  the  law  of  necessity  abrogate  the  Constitution. 
It  only  rises  above  it,  but  yet  stands  consistent  with  it.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  still  the  admission  of  the  gentleman  goes  the 
whole  length  of  the  vindication  of  General  Jackson.    It  is  under 


ON  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  61 

this  law  of  necessity  we  may  do  many  things  not  affirma- 
tively warranted  by  the  Constitution,  but  yet  entirely  consistent 
with  it.  What  right  have  I,  affirmatively ,  under  the  Constitution, 
rudely  to  seize  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  (who  has  just  closed  his 
speech  against  this  bill,)  and  rescue  him  by  the  hair  of  his  head 
from  a  watery  grave?  What  right  have  I,  affirmatively,  under  the 
Constitution,  to  blow  up  my  neighbor's  dwelling  with  a  train 
of  gunpowder?  Yet,  if  I  do  so,  to  arrest  the  progress  of  de- 
vouring flames,  the  law  of  necessity  rises  higher  than  the  Con- 
stitution, but  still  consistently  with  it,  and  justifies  the  act.  So 
to  save  a  city  from  capture,  or  a  nation  from  subjugation,  we 
may  go  far  beyond  the  express  letter  of  the  Constitution,  and 
suspend  many  of  the  personal  rights  secured  to  individuals. 
No  one  has  ever  sustained  this  doctrine  more  ably  than  Mr. 
Jefferson.  He  says  in  one  of  his  letters,  vol.  4,  p.  150,  of  his 
works,  as  follows : 

"  The  question  you  propose,  whether  circumstances  do  not  sometimes  oc- 
cur which  make  it  a  duty  in  officers  of  high  trust  to  assume  authorities  be- 
yond the  law,  is  easy  of  solution  on  principle,  but  sometimes  embarrassing 
in  practice.  A  strict  observance  of  the  written  law  is  doubtless  one  of  the 
high  duties  of  a  good  citizen  ;  but  it  is  not  the  highest.  The  laws  of  ne- 
cessity, of  self-preservation,  of  saving  our  country  when  in  danger,  are  of 
higher  obligation.  To  lose  our  country  by  a  scrupulous  adherence  to  the 
written  law  itself,  with  life,  liberty,  property,  and  all  those  who  are  enjoying 
them  with  us  :  thus  absurdly  sacrificing  the  end  to  the  means.  When,  in 
the  battle  of  Germantown,  General  Washington's  army  was  annoyed  from 
Chew's  house,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  plant  his  cannon  against  it,  although 
the  property  of  a  citizen.  When  he  beseiged  Yorktown,  he  levelled  the 
suburbs,  feeling  that  the  laws  of  property  must  be  postponed  to  the  safety 
of  the  nation.  While  the  army  was  before  York,  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
took  horses,  carriages,  provisions,  and  even  men,  by  force,  to  enable  that 
army  to  stay  together  till  it  could  master  the  public  enemy  ;  and  he  was 
justified.  *  *  *  *  All  these  constituted  a  law  of  necessity  and  self- 
preservation,  and  rendered  the  stilus  populi  supreme  over  the  written  law. 
The  officer  who  is  called  to  act  on  this  superior  ground  does,  indeed,  risk 
himself  on  the  justice  of  the  controlling  powers  of  the  Constitution,  and 
his  statiom  makes  it  his  duty  to  incur  that  risk.  *  *  *  *  It  is  incum- 
bent, however,  only  on  those  who  accept  great  charges,  to  risk  themselves 
on  great  occasions,  when  the  safety  of  the  nation,  or  some  of  its  very 
highest  interests,  are  at  stake.  An  officer  is  bound  to  obey  orders  ;  yet  he 
would  be  a  bad  one  who  should  do  it  in  cases  for  which  they  were  not  in- 
tended, and  which  involved  the  most  important  consequences.     The  line  of 


62  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

discrimination  between  cases  may  be  difficult ;  but  the  good  officer  is  bound 
to  draw  it  at  his  own  peril,  and  to  throw  himself  on  the  justice  of  his  coun- 
try and  the  rectitude  of  his  motives." 

These,  sir,  are  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  expressed  in 
1810,  and  they  go  the  whole  extent  of  the  principles  on  which 
we  vindicate  the  conduct  of  General  Jackson  in  declaring  mar- 
tial law.  How  does  the  gentleman  from  New  York  escape 
from  the  force  and  power  of  such  authority  ?  Simply  by  say- 
ing, that  although  the  great  law  of  necessity  may,  in  some 
cases,  authorize  the  exercise  of  such  authority,  yet  in  this  case 
there  was  no  sufficient  or  adequate  necessity.  No  adequate 
necessity,  sir  ?  When  did  General  Jackson  overrate  any  dan- 
ger impending  over  him,  or  the  brave  army  he  commanded  ? 
What  could  have  induced  him  to  overestimate  the  dangers  at 
New  Orleans?  Was  he  not  on  the  ground?  Could  he  not 
hear  every  discharge  of  the  enemy's  artillery?  Could  he  not 
see  every  signal  of  his  rockets,  and  every  advance  of  his  col- 
umns? What,  then,  could  have  led  him  to  an  exaggerated  es- 
timate of  the  danger?  Not  the  fears  of  General  Jackson,  I 
am  sure ;  for  he  had  been  born  and  had  lived  insensible  to 
fear.  There  had  never  been  a  day  nor  an  hour  in  his  life 
when  he  might  not  have  exclaimed,  but  for  its  excessive 
egotism — 

" Danger  knows  full  well, 

That  Caesar  is  more  dangerous  than  he. 
We  were  two  lions  littered  in  one  day, 
And  I  the  elder  and  more  terrible." 

The  gentleman  knows  but  little  of  the  personal  or  military 
history  of  that  great  man  if  he  supposes  him  capable  of  hav- 
ing been  influenced  by  so  ignoble  a  passion. 

This  extraordinary  position  is  attempted  to  be  sustained, 
however,  on  another  ground  :  that  New  Orleans  and  its  envi- 
rons never  were  actually  invaded — that  the  enemy,  in  other 
words,  never  did  enter  within  its  chartered  boundaries.  And 
why  did  he  not  ?  It  was  because  General  Jackson  and  his 
brave  comrades  met  him  on  the  lines,  drove  back  his  legions, 
routed  and  dispersed  them,  with  a  courage  and  a  triumph  that 
filled  America  with  joy,  and  the  world  with  admiration  !  New 
Orleans  and  its  environs  were  never  actually  invaded !     Well, 


OX  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  63 

let  the  gentleman  have  it  so.  Let  him  have  it  that  the  enemy- 
was  at  the  lines,  but  not  within  the  lines  of  the  city.  Does  he 
not  know  that  if  the  enemy  had  once  entered  within  the  city, 
all  would  have  been  lost  ?  His  fires  would  have  been  seen 
blazing  from  every  steeple,  and  his  artillery  would  have  bat- 
tered down  every  public  and  private  building.  Then  might  you 
have  realized  the  full  import  of  their  watchword,  in  the  screams 
of  American  wives  and  daughters,  under  the  rude  grasp  of  a 
licentious  British  soldiery.  Sir,  I  repeat  it :  if  ever  the  enemy 
had  once  entered  within  the  city,  all  would  have  been  lost. 
Your  heroic  General  and  his  brave  officers  would  have  been 
slain;  your  noble  army  would  have  beencaptured  or  dispersed; 
your  city  would  have  been  sacked  and  burnt,  and  the  then 
young,  but  rising,  and  now  mighty  West,  would  have  been 
ruined.  Sir,  I  love  the  West.  It  is  the  land  of  my  youth,  and 
the  home  of  my  manhood.  I  love  her  lofty  mountains,  her  wide 
luxuriant  valleys,  her  deep  majestic  rivers.  Need  I  say  that  I 
love,  and  honor,  and  cherish  in  my  heart  of  hearts,  that  immor- 
tal man  who  saved  and  preserved  them  all !  To  guard  against 
a  great  and  mighty  calamity  like  this,  he  proclaimed  martial 
law.  Let  me  read  to  you  his  own  eloquent  exposition  of  the 
motives  which  impelled  him  to  the  act.  It  is  to  be  found  in 
his  defence  before  an  inexorable  Judge,  sitting  in  the  very  city 
he  had  just  saved,  and  before  he  had  left  the  scene  of  his  tri- 
umph and  glory : 

"  In  this  crisis,  and  under  a  firm  persuasion  that  none  of  these  objects 
could  be  effected  by  the  exercise  of  the  ordinary  powers  confided  to  him  ; 
under  a  solemn  conviction  that  the  country  committed  to  his  care  could  be 
saved  by  that  measure  only  from  utter  ruin  ;  under  a  religious  belief  that  he 
was  performing  the  most  important  and  sacred  duty, — respondent  proclaimed 
martial  law.  He  intended,  by  that  measure,  to  supersede  such  civil  powers 
as  in  their  operation  interfered  with  those  he  was  obliged  to  exercise.  He 
thought  that,  in  such  a  moment,  constitutional  forms  must  be  suspended 
for  the  permanent  preservation  of  constitutional  rights,  and  that  there  could 
be  no  question  whether  it  were  best  to  depart  for  a  moment  from  the  exer- 
cise of  our  dearest  privileges,  or  have  them  wrested  from  us  forever.  He 
knew  that,  if  the  civil  magistrate  were  permitted  to  exercise  his  usual  func- 
tions, none  of  the  measures  necessary  to  avert  the  awful  fate  that  threat- 
ened us,  could  be  expected.  Personal  liberty  cannot  exist  at  a  time  when 
every  man  is  required  to  become  a  soldier.  Private  property  cannot  be  se- 
cured, when  its  use  is   indispensable    for  the  public  safety.      Unlimited 


64  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

liberty  of  speech  is  incompatible  with  the  discipline  of  a  camp  ;  and  that  of 
the  press  is  the  more  dangerous,  when  it  is  made  the  vehicle  of  conveying 
intelligence  to  the  enemy,  or  exciting  mutiny  among  the  soldiery.  To  have 
suffered  the  uncontrolled  enjoyment  of  any  one  of  those  rights  during  the 
time  of  the  late  invasion,  would  have  been  to  abandon  the  defence  of  the 
country.  The  civil  magistrate  is  the  guardian  of  those  rights ;  and  the 
proclamation  of  martial  law  was  therefore  intended  to  supersede  the  exercise 
of  his  authority,  so  far  as  it  interfered  with  the  necessary  restriction  of 
those  rights,  but  no  farther" 

Here,  sir,  is  his  own  exposition  of  the  pure  and  patriotic  mo- 
tives— an  exposition  that  ought  to  have  softened  down  the 
heart  of  that  "  British  inebriate,"  though  that  heart  had  been 
made  of  stone.  Nothing,  however,  could  move  the  inexorable 
Judge  :  he  spurned  the  defence  from  the  record,  and  the  enor- 
mous fine  of  one  thousand  dollars  was  imposed  on  the  saviuor 
of  the  city.  It  was  excessive — it  was  enormous ;  so  excessive,  so 
enormous,  that  it  ought  to  be  remitted.  Here  is  common  ground 
where  all  can  stand.  Here  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  from 
Massachusetts,  from  Kentucky,  might  stand  ;  common  ground, 
where  both  my  colleagues  (Messrs.  Peyton  and  Dickinson)  might 
have  stood,  both  in  their  speeches  and  their  votes — the  enormity 
of  this  fine.  It  equalled  the  net  income  of  one  whole  year  of 
General  Jackson's  resources.  Whatever  any  man  may  think  of 
his  power  to  declare  martial  law,  no  man  can  doubt  the  purity  of 
his  motives.  That  purity  should  have  disarmed  the  law  of  its 
vengeance,  and  wrapped  its  victim  in  the  mantle  of  mercy, 
gratitude  and   honor. 

Mr.  Chairman:  I  fear  that  much  of  the  reluctance  of  gen- 
tlemen to  the  passage  of  this  bill  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
this  was  a  pecuniary  punishment.  Suppose,  instead  of  a  fine 
your  Commanding  General  had  been  cast  into  the  prisons  of 
Louisiana.  Suppose  the  same  mail  that  brought  you  the  news 
of  that  unparalleled  victory  had  brought  the  news  that  your 
General  was  in  a  dungeon  ;  that  whilst  the  brave  army  which 
he  had  commanded  had  returned  home  in  safety  and  honor,  its 
heroic  commander  was  pining  in  prison  for  the  very  act  which 
had  closed  the  second  war  of  Independence  in  a  blaze  of 
glory  !  How  long,  think  you,  would  Mr.  Madison,  then  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  have  permitted  him  to  remain  un- 
pardoned and  unliberated  from  that  loathsome  condition.  How 


ON  REMITTING  THE  FINE  ON  GEN.  JACKSON.  65 

long  would  it  have  been,  before  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  then  in  session,  would  have  interceded,  if  necessary,  in 
his  behalf?  Sir,  that  whole  Congress  would  have  rushed  from 
both  ends  of  the  Capitol,  and  gone  in  solemn  procession  to  im- 
plore his  instant  liberation.  Would  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  [Mr.  Barnard]  have  deserted  from  the  lines  of  that  pro- 
cession, and  exclaimed,  as  he  has  now  done,  "We  have  a  Con- 
stitution to  preserve,"  and  therefore  let  him  rot  in  jail?  Would 
the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  [Mr.  Grider,]  then  have  said,  let 
him  pine  in  his  dungeon,  because  he  and  his  constituents  were 
entitled  to  their  share  of  the  glory  of  his  achievements?  Would 
my  colleague,  [Mr.  Peyton]  have  travelled  onward  in  a  pro- 
cession whose  object,  if  obtained,  would  strike  down  the  no- 
blest monument  of  his  glory,  pluck  the  proudest  feather  from 
his  war-plume,  and  dim  the  lustre  of  the  brightest  jewel  that 
glitters  in  the  coronet  of  his  fame?  Would  the  venerable  gen- 
tleman from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Adams]  have  been  seen  then 
lingering  far  behind  in  that  procession,  and  refusing  to  ask  for 
the  liberation  of  the  man  by  whose  defence  on  a  previous  oc- 
casion he  had  secured  his  warmest  lodgement  in  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen?  No,  sir;  there  would  have  been  no  halting 
and  hesitating  in  such  a  case  in  the  Congress  of  1815.  All  men 
of  all  parties — save  only  those  who  loved  England,  whose 
proud  myrimdons  he  had  conquered,  more  than  they  loved 
their  own  country — would  have  rushed  to  the  Executive  man- 
sion, and  implored  the  liberation  of  General  Jackson.  His 
punishment  by  fine  stands  on  the  same  principle  as  his  pun- 
ishment by  imprisonment.  With  the  same  patriotic  ardor 
that  the  Congress  of  1815  would  have  implored  the  remission 
of  the  one,  the  Congress  of  1844  ought  to  remit  the  other. 

But  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Schenck]  has  just  told  us 
that  this  was  not  the  right  time ;  that,  if  done  at  all,  it  should 
have  been  done  on  the  day  when  the  fine  was  imposed.  I  fear, 
sir,  the  right  time  will  never  come  with  him  and  his  party  friends, 
who  evince  such  a  never-dying  opposition  to  this  bill.  Thirty 
years  have  now  rolled  over  the  memorable  scenes  of  New  Or- 
leans ;  but  they  have  neither  dimmed  the  gratitude  of  his  coun- 
try, nor  softened  down  the  malevolence  of  his  enemies.  This 
is  the  8th  of  January,  the  day  which  he  has  rendered  ever  mem- 

6 


66  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

orable  in  the  annals  of  his  country ;  it  is  the  very  day  on  which 
this  cruel  and  unjust  judgment  should  be  reversed — when  this 
excessive  and  enormous  fine  should  be  remitted.  He  has  ren- 
dered it  illustrious  by  the  noblest  victory  on  record ;  let  us  ren- 
der it,  if  possible,  still  more  illustrious,  by  a  great  act  of  national 
justice  and  honor. 


SPEECH, 

On  the  Correspondence  of  Mr.  Webster  with  the  British  Minis- 
ter, in  relation  to  the  surrender  of  Alexander  McLeod.  Deliv- 
ered in  the  House  of  Representatives,  July  9th  and  lOth,  1841. 


The  following  resolution  being  under  consideration  in  the 
Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union : 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to  inform 
this  House,  if  not  incompatible  with  the  public  service,  whether  any  officer 
of  the  army,  or  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States,  has,  since  the 
4th  of  March  last,  been  directed  to  visit  the  State  of  New  York  for  any  pur- 
pose connected  with  the  imprisonment  or  trial  of  Alexander  McLeod  ;  and 
whether,  by  any  Executive  measures  or  correspondence,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment has  been  given  to  understand  that  Mr.  McLeod  will  be  released 
or  surrendered  ;  and,  if  so,  to  communicate  to  this  House  copies  of  the  in- 
structions to,  and  report  of,  such  officer. 

Mr.  A.  V.  Brown,  of  Tennessee,  addressed  the  House  as 
follows  : 

Mr.  Speaker:  I  offer  no  apology  for  further  discussion  of 
this  subject.  It  has  not  been  discussed  enough  yet.  It  was 
not  discussed  enough  last  winter,  when  the  British  Government 
half  confessed  that  she  had  invaded  our  soil,  burnt  our  prop- 
erty, and  murdered  our  people.  She  so  nearly  confessed  it, 
that  when  her  minister's  letter  was  received,  containing  the 
impudent  avowal  "that  the  destruction  of  the  Caroline  was 
the  public  act  of  persons  in  her  Majesty's  service,  obeying  the 
orders  of  their  superior  authorities,"  this  hall  rung  with  indig- 
nation from  one  side  of  it  to  the  other. 

The  now  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means,  and  the  present 
Postmaster  General,  both  coming  from  the  region  of  country 
where  this  outrage  was  perpetrated,  made  the  most  animated 
appeals  to  our  sympathies  and  patriotism. 

But  the  cold  suggestion  was  made  then,  as  now,  that  the 


68  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECEES. 

negotiation  was  yet  pending,  and  we  must  beware  how  we 
aroused  the  sleeping  lion  of  English  power.  Soon  afterward, 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  submitted  a  report,  rather 
spirited  in  its  tone,  commenting  with  some  slight  severity  on 
British  aggression  and  ambition;  when  we  were  again  admon- 
ished of  her  fleets  and  armies,  and  the  ease  with  which  she 
could  reduce  our  towns  and  cities  to  ashes. 

These  admonitions  were  effectual.  Debate  subsided;  the 
first  flashes  of  our  indignation  died  away;  and  we  ad- 
journed, half  regretting  that  we  had  dared  to  debate  the  sub- 
ject at  all. 

Sir,  Lord  Palmerston  observed  all  and  read  all  that  was  ut- 
tered in  this  hall ;  and  concluding,  from  the  too  cautious  tem- 
per of  that  debate,  that  Mr.  Forsyth  would  not  be  sustained  in 
the  lofty  stand  he  had  taken,  determined  at  once  to  make  a 
peremptory  demand  upon  us — to  appeal  to  our  fears  "  of  the 
serious  consequences  of  a  refusal."  I  hope  in  God  that  no 
action  of  this  House,  on  this  resolution,  will  ever  confirm  his 
degrading  estimate  of  its  disposition  and  determination  to  resist 
all  foreign  aggression  at  every  hazard. 

It  is  time, high  time,  for  us  to  speak  out  boldly,  and  without 
reserve.  England's  ministry  have  spoken  the  words  of  burning 
shame  to  the  insulted  honor  of  this  country.  One  of  her  mem- 
bers of  Parliament  has  even  threatened  to  arm  our  slaves,  and 
to  excite  all  the  Indian  tribes  against  us.  And  shall  an  Amer- 
ican Congress  be  afraid  to  speak — afraid  to  call  even  for  ne- 
cessary information — lest,  peradventure,  it  should  embarrass 
our  future  negotiations  ?  Sir,  I  am  free  to  declare  that  I  de- 
sire to  embarrass  all  such  negotiations  as  have  been  lately  go- 
ing on.  Were  I  the  American  Executive,  my  Secretary  of 
State  should  never  write  another  line  in  the  way  of  negotiation, 
until  England  withdrew  that  degrading  threat,  which  is  yet 
hanging  over  my  country,  and  which  Mr.  Webster  has  never 
had  the  heart  to  repel — all  American  as  that  heart  is,  according 
to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia,  [Mr.  Wise.] 

But,  sir,  can  this  call,  by  any  possibility,  embarrass  future 
negotiation?  It  cannot,  for  the  resolution  on  its  face  confers 
on  the  President  a  boundless  discretion  in  giving  or  withholding 
the  information.    Besides,  a  large  portion  of  the  call  relates 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  69 

only  to  the  mission  of  two  of  our  own  public  officers  to  the 
State  of  New  York,  with  whose  instructions  England  should 
never  have  been  made  acquainted.  But,  instead  of  this,  it  is 
highly  probable  that  the  British  Government  knows  all  about 
them,  whilst  our  own  countrymen  are  profoundly  ignorant  on 
the  subject. 

This  mission  was  so  extraordinary — so  unlike  any  thing  that 
had  ever  occurred  under  any  former  Administration,  that  cu- 
riosity alone  might  prompt  us  to  inquire  why  a  brave  and  gal- 
lant general  of  our  armies  had  been  sent  off  four  or  five  hun- 
dred miles — not  to  meet  and  battle  (as  he  had  often  and  glori- 
ously done)  the  enemies  of  his  country,  but,  strange  to  tell,  to 
attend  to  a  law-suit  in  court.  Only  think  of  it,  sir;  an  old  sol- 
dier, covered  with  his  scars  and  his  honors,  sent  out  to  assist 
the  law  officer  of  the  Government  to  argue  a  demurrer  to  an 
indictment,  or  to  file  a  plea  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a  county  court. 
Heavens !  as  the  eloquent  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  [Mr. 
Marshall  J  would  say,  "  what  an  immortal  petrefaction"  of 
human  folly ! 

But,  sir,  to  be  serious.  Was  General  Scott  despatched  to 
New  York  for  any  purpose  connected  with  the  trial  of  McLeod? 
And,  if  so,  what  could  have  been  that  purpose  ?  Was  it  to 
effect  a  release  by  the  sword,  if  the  Attorney  General  should 
fail  to  procure  it  by  the  purse?  Such  a  purpose  is  incredible. 
What  then?  Why,  the  most  probable  conjecture  is,  that  Mr. 
Webster  had  learned,  from  some  source  or  other,  that  McLeod 
was  to  be  liberated  at  all  events,  and  at  every  hazard,  by  the 
British  authorities  in  Canada;  that,  in  the  event  of  a  conviction, 
our  soil  was  to  be  again  invaded,  our  jail  at  Lockport  to  be 
pulled  down  or  burnt  like  the  Caroline ;  and,  if  necessary,  to 
shoot  and  sabre  and  murder  our  people,  as  they  had  done 
before ! 

Sir,  I  want  to  know  all  about  this  military  expedition;  and, 
if  my  conjecture  should  prove  correct,  then  I  want  to  know 
why  Mr.  Webster  should  feel  so  much  sympathy  for  this  Eng- 
lish subject,  who  inhumanly  boasted  that  his  sword  was  yet 
red  with  the  blood  of  an  American  citizen, — why  he  should 
send  him  testimony  and  counsel,  and  render  him  every  assis- 
tance in  his  power  to  escape  justice  and  to  elude  the  law. 


70  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

Surely  Mr.  Webster  was  under  no  obligation  to  the  British  na- 
tion so  to  volunteer  his  services  in  behalf  of  one  of  her  subjects. 
That  would  make  him  more  like  a  British  consul  than  an 
American  Secretary  of  State.  From  that  hour  (if  not  before) 
when  Mr.  Fox  declared  the  approval  of  the  burning  of  the 
Caroline,  and  the  murder  of  her  crew,  by  his  Government,  Mr. 
Webster  should  have  said :  "  Then  go  and  defend  McLeod  your- 
self; employ  his  counsel  with  your  own  or  your  nation's  money; 
collect  his  testimony  for  him  yourself;  henceforth  and  forever 
I  leave  him  to  his.  fate,  to  answer  to  the  insulted  and  violated 
laws  of  New  York  in  the  best  manner  he  may."  The  more 
especially  should  he  have  said  and  acted  in  this  manner,  after 
those  threats  which  I  suppose  to  have  given  rise  to  General 
Scott's  expedition  to  New  York. 

But,  sir,  this  whole  mission  has  been  marked,  throughout,  not 
more  by  the  most  morbid  and  misapplied  sympathy,  than  by 
the  novelty  and  inconsistency  of  the  duties  which  it  imposed  on 
the  Attorney  General.  It  is  the  duty  of  that  officer  to  prosecute, 
not  to  defend,  criminals ;  to  give  counsel  to  our  President,  and 
to  the  heads  of  departments — not  to  traverse  the  country  for 
the  release  of  foreign  felons,  who,  at  the  dead  hour  of  mid- 
night, by  boats  propelled  by  muffled  oars,  invade  our  territory, 
burn  our  property,  and  imbue  their  hands  in  better  blood  than 
ever  flowed  in  English  veins. 

Such  are  the  duties  of  the  Attorney  General,  as  declared  by 
the  statute  of  1789.  What  duties  were  assigned  to  him  in  this 
degrading  mission — degrading  to  him  who  sent,  and  to  him 
who  was  sent  ?  You  may  find  them  in  page  25  of  document 
No.  1. 

"  The  President  is  impressed  with  the  propriety  of  transferring  the  trial 
from  the  scene  of  the  principal  excitement  to  some  other  and  distant  coun- 
try.    You  will  take  care  this  be  suggested  to  the  prisoner's  counsel. 

"  Having  consulted  with  the  Governor,  you  will  proceed  to  Lockport,  or 
wherever  else  the  trial  may  be  holden,  and  furnish  the  prisoner's  counsel 
with  the  evidence  of  which  you  will  be  in  possession,  material  to  his  de- 
fence. You  will  see  that  he  have  skillful  and  eminent  counsel,  if  such  be 
not  already  retained ;  and,  although  you  are  not  desired  to  act  as  counsel 
yourself,  you  will  cause  it  to  be  signified  to  him,  and  to  the  gentleman  who 
may  conduct  his  defence,  that  it  is  the  wish  of  this  Government  that,  in 
case  his  defence  is  overruled  by  the  court  in  which  he  shall  be  tried,  proper 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  71 

steps  be  taken  immediately  for  removing  the  cause,  by  writ  of  error,  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States." 

You  perceive,  sir,  that  he  was  not  to  go  as  public,  but  as 
secret  counsel — not  to  plead  for  McLeod  himself,  but  to  see  that 
he  had  others,  "  skillful  and  eminent,"  to  do  so ;  that  he  was  to 
furnish  him  with  testimony  ;  and,  above  all,  in  case  of  convic- 
tion, that  it  was  the  wish  of  the  Government  that  the  case  should 
be  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  that  the 
prisoner's  counsel  was  to  be  told  that  such  was  the  wish  of  the 
Government. 

The  defendant,  it  was  supposed,  might  not  feel  sufficient 
anxiety  to  save  his  neck  from  the  halter  by  appealing  to  a 
higher  tribunal,  and  must,  therefore,  be  encouraged  to  do  so 
by  the  assurance  that  the  Government  wished  him  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Attorney  General  is  to  signify  to  him  that  he  had  better 
appeal  than  die ! 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  pause  to  ask  if,  after  this,  you  can  believe 
that  wonders  will  ever  cease?  At  all  events,  can  you  believe 
they  are  likely  to  cease  during  this  life-preserving,  felon-sav- 
ing branch  of  this  Administration?  I  say  nothing  of  its  head, 
who  had  come  in  too  unexpectedly,  and  was  surrounded  by  too 
many  perplexities  at  that  period,  to  be  presumed  to  have  given 
much  attention  to  this  subject;  but  I  speak  emphatically  of 
this  branch  of  the  Administration. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  wish  now  to  call  your  attention  to  the  remain- 
ing clause  of  this  resolution,  to  wit :  "  whether  the  British 
Government  has  been  given  to  understand  that  McLeod  will  be 
released  or  surrendered." 

It  is  probable  that  the  President  can  give  us  but  little  more 
than  the  information  contained  in  his  message.  I  shall,  there- 
fore, under  that  supposition,  submit  my  views  on  the  merits  of 
the  McLeod  case,  and  the  course  pursued  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  in  the  correspondence,  as  it  now  stands. 

To  understand  the  merits  of  this  case,  and  to  judge  of  the 
propriety  or  impropriety  of  the  course  pursued  by  Mr.  Webster 
in  it,  we  must  have  a  clear  and  distinct  understanding  of  the 
facts.  For  these,  I  refer  you  to  the  speech  of  the  honorable 
chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  at  the  last  session ;  to  the 
statement  of  the   case  made  by  Mr.  Webster  himself;   and, 


72  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

lastly,  to  a  condensed  and  nervous  statement  of  them  in  the 
other  end  of  the  Capitol,  which  has  never  been  denied  or  con- 
tradicted there  or  on  this  floor. 

"This  brings  me  to  the  case  before  us.     What  is  it?     The 
facts  of  the  case  are  all  spread  out  in  official  documents,  and 
the  evidence  is  clear  and  undeniable.     An   American  steam 
ferry-boat  traverses  the  Niagara  river ;  she  carries  passengers 
and  property  from  one  shore  to  the  other.      The  English  be- 
lieve (and  perhaps  truly)  that  she  carries  men  and  arms  to  the 
insurgents  in  Canada ;  and  without  any  appeal  to  our  Govern- 
ments, either  State  or  Federal — without  applying  to  us  to  put 
our  own  laws  in  force  against  her — an  English  officer,  of  his 
own  head,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  British  Government, 
determines  to  do — what?    Not  to  watch  the  suspected  vessel, 
arrest  her  in  the  fact,  seize  the  guilty  and  spare  the  innocent ; 
but  to  steal  upon  her  in  the  night,  board  her  asleep,  and  de- 
stroy her  at  the  American  shore,  under  the  flag  of  her  country. 
In  the  evening  of  the  meditated  outrage  volunteers  are  called 
for — fifty  or  sixty  dashing,  daring  fellows — ready  to  follow  their 
leader  to  the  devil, — for  that  was  the  language  used ;  and  it 
proves  the  expedition  to  have  been  a  diabolical  one,  and  wor- 
thy to  be  led  as  well  as  followed  by  demons.     The  arms  were 
sabres  and  pistols ;  the  season  of  attack,  midnight ;  the  means 
of  approach,  light  boats  and  muffled  oars ;  the  progress  slow, 
silent,  and  stealthy,  that  no  suspicious  sound  should  alarm  the 
sleeping  victims.     The  order  was  death  and  no  quarter.     Thus 
prepared  and  led,  they  approach  the  boat  in  the  dead  of  the 
night — reach  her  without  discovery — rush  on  board — fly  to  the 
berths — cut,  slash,  stab,  and  shoot  all  whom  they  see — pursue 
the  flying,   and,    besides  those  in   the  boat,  kill  one  man  at 
least  upon  the  soil  of  his  country,  far  from  the  water's  edge. 
Victorious  in  an  attack  where  there  was  no  resistance,  the  con- 
querors draw  the  vessel  into  the  midst  of  the  current,  set  her  on 
fire,  and  with  all  her  contents — the  dead,  the  living,  the  woun- 
ded, and  the  dying — send  her  in  flames  over  the  frightful  catar- 
act of  the  Niagara.     McLeod,  the  man  whose  release  is  deman- 
ded from  us,  was  (according  to  his  own  declarations,  made  at 
the  time  in  his  own  country,  repeated  since  in  ours,  and  accor- 
ding to  the  sworn  testimony  of  one  of  the  survivors)  an  actor 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  73 

in  that  piratical  and  cowardly  tragedy.  According  to  his  own 
assertions,  and  the  admission  of  his  comrades,  he  was  one  of 
the  foremost  in  that  cruel  work,  and  actually  killed  one  of  the 
1  damned  Yankees'  (to  use  his  own  words,)  with  his  own  hands." 
— Mr.  Benton's  speech  in  Senate  United  States. 

Now,  sir,  on  these  facts,  which  it  warms  one's  American 
blood  to  recite,  can  this  band  of  merciless  desperadoes  be  lia- 
ble to  punishment  under  the  laws  of  New  York,  where  their 
crimes  were  perpetrated?  To  my  mind,  after  the  best  exam- 
ination I  have  been  able  to  give  to  the  subject,  there  can  be 
but  one  response.  McLeod,  one  of  the  perpetrators,  is  answer- 
able, unless  he  can  show  that  it  was  a  public  military  expedi- 
tion, set  on  foot  by  the  proper  authorities  in  Canada,  with  or 
without  a  previous  declaration  of  war  against  this  country, 
commanding  the  specific  things  to  be  done  for  which  he  now 
stands  indicted  in  the  State  of  New  York.  I  repeat — com- 
manding the  specific  things  to  be  done  for  which  he  is  indicted. 

In  time  of  open  public  war,  such  authority  would  be  presum- 
ed. The  courts  would  look  to  the  public  acts,  proclamations,  de~ 
clarations  of  war,  and  other  proceedings  of  notoriety ;  and  out 
of  these  would  find  immunity  to  the  individuals  engaged, 
whilst  the  Government  would  retaliate  on  the  enemy  by  like 
incursions  into  their  territory.  But  in  time  ol  profound  peace, 
with  all  subsisting  treaty  stipulations  of  amity  in  full  force,  no 
such  presumptions  can  be  resorted  to.  Express,  positive,  and 
unequivocal  commands  from  competent  authority  are  all  that  can 
justify  him.  Were  such  commands  given?  The  whole  case 
turns  upon  that  fact.  The  case  will  turn  on  that  fact  in  the 
courts  of  New  York.  The  prisoner  must  come  forward  with 
the  orders  of  Sir  Francis  Head,  I  believe  then  Governor  Gen- 
eral of  Canada.  If  not  direct  from  him,  he  must  show  order 
from  some  military  commander  who  issued  them,  and  who  re- 
ceived his  orders  from  the  supreme  Colonial  Government. 
Further  back  than  that  it  would  not  be  necessary,  as  I  conceive, 
to  trace  the  orders.  If  such  orders  covered  and  embraced  the 
specific  act  for  which  he  was  indicted,  the  courts  of  New  York 
will  and  ought  to  discharge  him.  But  if  the  orders  were  gen- 
eral, "  to  break  up  the  establishment  at  Navy  Island,"  that 
would  not  do ;  or  if  they  were  "  to  destroy  any  vessel  convey- 


74  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

ing  insurgents  to  or  from  the  island,"  that  would  not  do.  If 
they  were  "  to  take  any  steps,  and  to  do  any  acts,  which  might 
be  necessary  for  the  defence  of  her  Majesty's  territory,  or  for 
the  protection  of  her  Majesty's  subjects,"  such  orders  would 
not  do.  They  would  not  justify  an  invasion  of  our  territory,  nor 
the  burning  of  a  vessel  lying  peaceably  moored  to  our  own 
shores,  with  no  military  stores,  and  with  no  troops  for  trans- 
portation. No  prior  use  of  the  boat  and  no  prior  conduct  of 
her  crew  could  justify  the  attack,  because  not  essential  "  to  the 
defence  of  British  territory  nor  of  British  subjects."  It  might 
be  an  act  of  revenge  for  the  past,  but  it  could  not  be  necessary 
for  protection  in  future. 

In  any  event,  capture  without  burning,  capture  without  the 
murder  of  her  crew,  would  surely  have  been  all  that  could 
have  been  necessary.  But,  sir,  when  only  ordered  to  defend 
British  territory,  they  come  at  the  dead  hour  of  midnight  and 
invade  American  soil ;  when  only  ordered  to  protect  British 
subjects,  they  shoot,  and  stab,  and  murder  American  citizens — 
instead,  at  most,  of  taking  and  towing  the  vessel  over  to  the 
British  side,  and  detaining  her  until  the  insurgents  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  island,  they  tow  her  out  to  the  middle  of  the 
river,  set  fire  to  her,  and  thus  commit  to  the  flames  the  remain- 
ing portion  of  her  crew,  sending  them  and  the  blazing  wreck 
over  the  mighty  falls  of  the  Niagara.  Sir,  place  yourself  in 
that  dark  and  bloody  night,  on  the  shore  of  that  river,  stand- 
ing proudly  as  you  would  do  on  American  ground.  In  the 
stillness  of  that  night,  listen  to  the  landing  of  hostile  soldiers 
on  our  shores,  to  the  attack  on  one  of  our  vessels ;  hear  the 
groans  of  our  dying  countrymen  :  a  moment  after,  look  at  that 
blazing  sheet  of  fire,  slowly  moving  on  to  the  dreadful  catar- 
act, till  at  last  it  makes  its  awful  leap  on  the  floods  below. 

Sir,  the  waves  of  Niagara  have  extinguished  the  fires  of  that 
vessel — they  have  silenced  forever  the  agonizing  shrieks  of  her 
remaining  crew ;  but  the  cry  of  vengeance  still  comes  up  from 
her  deep  and  agitated  bosom,  in  tones  louder  than  the  thun- 
der of  her  own  mighty  cataract.  I  carry  you  back  to  that 
midnight  scene — the  tramp  of  British  soldiers;  I  point  you 
to  the  dead  bodies  of  your  countrymen — to  the  blazing  victim 
of  the  falls.     Contemplating  all  these  things,  in  the  stillness 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  75 

of  that  night,  can  your  heart  find  one  throb  of  approbation 
to  the  cold,  unfeeling  diplomacy — to  the  tame  and  ready  sub- 
mission of  the  American  Secretary  of  State? 

Submission  to  what  ?  I  answer,  first.  To  the  impudent 
menace  or  threat  of  the  British  Government.  Do  you  ask  me 
what  he  should  have  done?  I  answer,  that  he  should  have 
stopped  all  negotiation  at  once — instantly  have  stopped  it — 
until  that  menace  was  withdrawn.  I  answer  further,  that  the 
least  he  should  have  done  would  have  been,  the  moment  the 
British  Government  avowed  her  approbatien  of  the  act,  he 
ought  to  have  retorted  her  own  language  of  peremptory  de- 
mand of  satisfaction,  and  to  have  flung  back  her  own  menace 
of  the  serious  consequences  of  a  refusal.  This,  sir,  is  the  least 
he  should  have  done  on  that  proud  and  insulting  occasion. 
What  else  should  he  have  done?  Answering  at  all,  he  should 
have  said  to  Mr.  Fox  :  Your  avowal  of  this  act  by  the  British 
Government  is  vague,  prevaricating  and  unsatisfactory. 

I  ask  your  attention,  and  that  of  this  House  and  nation,  to 
the  precise  words  of  that  avowal : 

"  The  grounds  on  which  the  British  Government  make  this  demand  upon 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  are  these  :  That  the  transaction  on 
account  of  which  Mr.  McLeod  has  been  arrested,  and  is  to  be  put  upon  his 
trial,  was  a  transaction  of  a  public  character,  planned  and  executed  by  per- 
sons duly  empowered  by  her  Majesty's  colonial  authorities  to  take  any 
steps  and  to  do  any  acts  which  might  be  necessary  for  the  defence  of  her 
Majesty's  territories,  and  for  the  protection  of  her  Majesty's  subjects  ;  and 
that,  consequently,  those  subjects  of  her  Majesty  who  engaged  in  that 
transaction  were  performing  an  act  of  public  duty,  for  which  they  cannot 
be  made  personally  and  individually  answerable  to  the  laws  and  tribunals 
of  any  foreign  country." 

These  are  the  precise  words  of  the  British  minister.  It  is 
fair  to  presume  that  they  are  the  precise  words  of  the  orders  of 
Colonel  McNab,  under  whom  McLeod  was  acting.  Well,  sir, 
suppose  these  orders  to  be  before  us  now,  or  before  the  courts 
of  New  York  on  the  trial :  will  such  orders  cover  the  case 
of  McLeod?  Will  they  justify  the  burning  of  the  Caroline,  the 
invasion  of  our  territory,  and  the  murder  of  our  people?  Sure- 
ly not ;  because  these  acts  did  not  come  within  the  scope  of  their 
orders  or  authority.  They  were  only  authorized  or  ordered  to 
do  such  acts  as  were  necessary  for  the  "  defence  of  her  territory, 


•  # 


% 

76  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

and  the  protection  of  her  Majesty's  subjects."  The  things 
done,  and  for  which  he  stands  indicted,  were  for  none  of  these 
purposes  ;  and  they,  therefore,  stand  without  excuse  or  justi- 
fication, because  they  exceeded  their  authority.  When  is  it  that 
individuals  by  the  law  of  nations,  are  exempted  from  municipal 
liability  in  such  cases?  It  is  only  when  the  act  done  was  by 
the  command  of  the  sovereign.  Of  course  that  command  must 
precede  the  act,  and  must  clearly  and  satisfactorily  cover  it. 
Sir,  Vattel,  nor  Grotius,  nor  any  other  writer  on  the  laws  of 
nations,  any  where  lays  down  the  doctrine  that  subsequent  ap- 
proval, without  previous  commands,  would  excuse  the  individual 
committing  the  crime.  Such  a  doctrine  would  perish  by  its 
own  absurdity.  It  is  true  that  a  subsequent  approval  may  also 
involve  the  nation,  and,  in  the  language  of  the  books,  "  make 
it  a  matter  of  public  concern" — as  it  was,  before  that  avowal, 
only  one  of  individual  concern.  This,  however,  only  adds 
another  party  to  the  controversy,  without  releasing  the  first. 
Hence  it  is  said  by  Vattel,  "  if  the  offended  State  has  in  her 
power  the  individual  who  has  done  the  injury,  she  may,  with- 
out scruple,  bring  him  to  justice,  and  punish  him." 

This  case  from  Vattel  is  precisely  the  case  of  McLeod.  He 
was,  to  say  the  best  for  him,  but  the  servant,  or  agent,  or  sol- 
dier of  the  Canadian  Government,  ordered  and  sent  to  do  one 
thing,  to  wit :  to  defend  the  British  territory,  and  protect  the 
British  subjects ;  but  exceeding  his  authority — going  beyond  his 
orders — he  invaded  our  territory,  burnt  our  property,  and  mur- 
dered our  citizens.  He  fled  back  to  his  own  country;  and,  if 
he  had  remainded  there,  our  only  recourse  would  have  been  to 
demand  him  of  the  British  Government.  When  demanded,  if 
the  British  Government  refused  to  surrender  him,  she  would 
have  made  it  a  "  public  concern,"  and  we  might  have  looked 
to  her  for  satisfaction  for  the  refusal]  not  for  the  original  act 
of  her  subject,  but  for  the  refusal]  and  the  measure  of  satisfac- 
tion for  that  refusal  would  justly  be,  indemnity  for  losses  sus- 
tained by  the  original  act.  But  if,  before,  or  pending,  or  sub- 
sequent to  such  a  demand,  the  individual  returns  within  our 
jurisdiction,  we  may  hold  him  responsible  for  his  transgression 
of  our  laws,  and  punish  him  accordingly.  When  that  is  done, 
the  original  offence  is  atoned  for.     No  double  satisfaction  for 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  77 

that  can  be  demanded ;  but  we  should  be  still  at  liberty  to  pro- 
ceed for  the  subsequent  refusal,  according  to  the  circumstances 
of  aggravation  attending  it. 

But,  sir,  I  repeat,  that  nothing  short  of  a  previous  order  to 
do  the  specific  act  complained  of,  given  by  competent  au- 
thority, can  save  McLeod  in  the  courts  of  New  York.  No 
subsequent  approval  of  it  by  the  British  Government  can  do  it. 
McLeod  will  find  it  so  on  his  trial ;  and  the  American  Secre- 
tary of  State  should  have  told  the  British  Government  so,  and 
should  have  demanded  the  production  of  the  original  order,  or 
a  copy  of  it,  so  as  to  see  precisely  its  extent  and  operation. 
And  here  is  my  highest  objection  to  the  conduct  of  our  Secre- 
tary of  State.  He  never  had  the  fearlessness  to  say  to  Eng 
land,  "  Show  me  your  order  to  this  man  or  his  leader  ;  show 
me  that — its  date,  its  every  word — that  my  Government  may 
see  whether  these  crimes  are  yours  or  his.  If  yours,  the  courts 
of  New  York,  in  due  season,  will  send  him  home  unharmed 
and  uninjured,  whilst  I  will  hold  you  instantly  responsible  for 
his  conduct." 

This  is  what  Mr.  Webster,  in  my  humble  opinion,  should 
have  said  and  done.  What  did  he  say  and  do?  He  affects  to 
see  no  distinction  between  a  prior  order  and  a  subsequent  ap- 
proval of  the  conduct  of  McLeod.  In  fact,  he  substitutes  the 
latter  for  the  former,  and,  with  indecent  haste,  gives  the  British 
Government  to  understand  that  the  claim  of  New  York  con- 
stituted the  only  difficulty  in  the  way  of  an  instant  compli- 
ance with  its  demand.  What  more?  Why  he  gives  Mr.  Fox 
a  copy  of  his  instructions  to  the  Attorney  General,  and  thereby 
informs  him  of  the  hasty  and  extraordinary  means  by  which 
he  was  endeavoring  to  snatch  McLeod  out  of  the  hands  of 
New  York,  the  only  remaining  obstacle  to  his  surrender. 

Sir,  Mr.  Fox  saw  at  once  that  his  threat  had  told — the  British 
ministry  saw  the  same  thing — the  British  Parliament  saw  it — 
and  they  are  all  now  waiting  in  full  assurance  the  heroes  of 
Acre  will  have  no  opportunity  to  increase  their  laurels  on  the 
coast  of  America. 

But,  sir,  they  may  be  mistaken  after  all.  There  is  but  one 
thing  can  save  him  on  his  trial.    If  indeed  he  were  absent  from 


78  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

the  scene  of  these  outrages — if  indeed  he  was  no  member  of 
that  "public  force,"  he  will  and  ought  to  be  acquitted. 

But  the  Supreme  Court  will  require  him,  as  Mr.  Webster 
ought  to  have  done,  to  produce  the  order  under  which  the  party 
acted.  They  will  look  closely  to  the  extent  of  that  order ;  and 
if  that  order  was  exceeded,  he  must  die.  No  subsequent  ap- 
proval of  the  British  Government  can  shield  him — no  over- 
sight of  the  American  Secretary  can  set  aside  the  strict  and 
impartial  administration  of  Justice.  Die  he  must;  and  all 
the  thunder  of  the  British  navy  cannot  frighten  the  American 
people  from  approving  and  applauding  the  sentence. 

If  such  should  be  the  fate  of  McLeod,  there  remains  but  one 
question  to  be  considered — and  that  is,  one  of  peace  and  war. 
Will  Great  Britain  feel  bound  and  pledged  to  declare  war 
against  this  country  to  avenge  his  death?  Sir,  England  would 
never  have  thought  of  such  a  thing,  but  for  the  timid  policy 
and  unwise  admissions  of  the  Secretary  of  State.  As  it  is,  she 
may,  and  probably  will,  venture  to  appeal  to  that  "ultima 
ratio  regum  ;"  and,  sir,  in  the  very  declaration  in  which  she  ap- 
peals to  arms,  she  will  present  the  correspondence  of  our  own 
Secretary  to  vindicate  the  act.  She  will  spread  it  before  all 
Europe  as  her  justification,  and  will  engrave  it  on  the  very 
banner  under  which  she  will  march  to  the  conflict. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  to  avert  the  horrors  of  war  that  this  ap- 
parent severity  of  remark  on  the  course  of  the  Secretary  has 
been  indulged  in ;  and,  if  it  must  come,  we  wish  to  rescue  the 
country  from  the  imputation  of  having  induced  it,  by  having 
too  tamely  surrendered  the  rights  of  our  citizens. 

It  is  not  too  late  yet  for  Mr.  Webster  to  review  the  fatal  ad- 
missions he  has  made,  and  to  place  this  correspondence  on  a 
more  elevated  and  more  defensible  foundation.  If  no  ex- 
hortation on  this  floor  can  prevail  with  him,  let  him  learn  it 
from  Lord  Palmerston  himself.  Let  him  learn  it  in  the  reply 
of  that  nobleman  to  Lord  Stanley  in  the  British  Parliament 
on  the  9th  of  February,  1841.    On  that  occasion  he  stated: 

"  With  regard  to  the  ground  taken  by  Mr.  Forsyth,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Fox, 
I  think  it  right  to  state  that  the  American  Government  undoubtedly  might 
have  considered  this  transaction  either  as  a  transaction  to  be  dealt  with  be. 
tween  the  two  Governments,  by  demands  for  redress  by  one  to  be  granted 


ON  THE  McLEOD  CASE.  79 

or  refused  by  the  other,  and  dealt  with  accordingly  :  or  it  might  have  been 
considered,  as  the  British  authorities  consider  proceedings  between  Ameri- 
can citizens  on  the  British  side  of  the  border, — as  matter  to  be  dealt  with  by 
the  local  authorities. 

"  But  the  American  Government  chose  the  former  course,  by  treating  this 
matter  as  one  to  be  decided  between  two  Governments ;  and  this  is  the 
ground  on  which  they  are  entitled  to  demand  redress  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment for  the  act  of  its  subjects ;  and  from  that  ground  they  cannot  be 
permitted  to  recede." 

Sir,  here  is  an  admission  of  our  original  right  to  seize  and 
punish  McLeod,  infinitely  stronger  than  is  any  where  asserted 
by  Mr.  Webster ; — an  admission  but  little  weakened  by  the 
sophistry  which  seeks  to  show  that  this  original  right  had  been 
lost  by  an  appeal  to  the  British  Government  for  redress.  That 
redress  has  never  been  granted — nay,  it  has  not  even  been 
promised;  and,  therefore,  upon  every  known  principle  this 
Government  stands  remitted  to  her  original  right  to  punish 
McLeod  whenever  she  can  get  hold  upon  him.  She  has  him 
now.  She  recurs  to  that  admitted  original  right,  notwithstand- 
ing its  surrender  by  Mr.  Webster. 

I  wish  now  to  refer  to  another  speech  of  Lord  Palmerston, 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Hume  in  the  same  debate.     He  said : 

"  With  regard  to  Mr.  Forsyth's  letter,  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  the  princi- 
ple stands  thus  :  In  the  case  of  the  American  citizens  engaged  in  invading 
Canada,  the  American  Government  disavows  the  acts  of  those  citizens,  and 
states  that  the  British  authorities  might  deal  with  them  as  they  pleased, 
and  that  they  were  persons  who  were  not  in  any  degree  entitled  to  the  pro- 
tection of  the  United  States.  But  in  the  other  case  they  treated  the  affair 
of  the  Caroline  as  one  to  be  considered  as  that  of  the  Government,  and  not 
to  be  left  on  the  responsibility  of  individuals.  Until,  therefore,  the  British 
Government  disowned  those  persons,  as  the  American  Government  disa- 
vowed their  citizens  in  the  other  case,  they  would  have  no  right  to  change 
their  ground  on  the  question." 

Now,  sir,  observe  the  position  taken  in  this  last  extract  by 
Lord  Palmerston.  Until  the  British  Government  disown  the 
persons  who  made  the  attack  on  the  Caroline,  they  were  not 
to  be  treated  as  the  British  authorities  treated  the  Americans 
taken  on  the  Canada  side.  And  how  was  that  ?  By  making 
them  responsible  to  the  local  authorities.  And  why  not  treat 
them  on  both  sides  alike?  Because  we  have  not  disowned  our 
people,  say  they,  as  you  have  done  yours.     But  if  you  have 


80  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

not  disowned  them,  have  you  ever  owned  them,  or  acknowledged 
their  acts  to  be  yours  ?     No,  never. 

For  two  years  we  demanded  of  the  British  Government  to 
say  whether  it  did  or  did  not  disown  these  persons  ;  but  she  ut- 
terly failed  during  all  that  time  to  say  whether  she  did  or  not. 
In  the  mean  time,  whilst  she  is  standing  mute  and  will  not  utter 
a  single  word  either  way,  McLeod  returns  to  the  United  States, 
impudently  brags  of  his  exploits  in  the  affair,  is  arrested,  and 
confined  for  trial.  Up  to  this  time,  we  could  not  get  England 
to  say  a  word  on  the  subject;  but  now  she  comes  very  suddenly 
to  her  speech.  One  of  her  felon  subjects  is  about  to  get  the 
rope  around  his  neck,  and  she  speaks  up  at  once  with  full  vol- 
ubility. Is  she  entitled  to  her  demand?  Is  she  entitled  to  take 
our  people  on  her  side  of  the  border,  and  hang  them  up  at  the 
yard-arm  or  shoot  them  like  dogs ;  whilst  her  people,  taken  on 
our  side,  with  their  hands  yet  reeking  with  the  blood  of  our 
fellow-citizens,  may  stalk,  and  strut,  and  vapor  through  our 
land,  with  utter  impunity? 

Sir,  Mr.  Webster  virtually  says  all  this  may  be  done.  He 
virtually  surrenders  the  rights  and  privileges  of  our  border  citi- 
zens, and  lays  them  exposed  to  every  marauding  expedition 
that  may  be  set  on  foot  against  them  in  Canada.  But,  sir, 
were  this  the  last  public  act  of  my  life,  I  would  protest  against 
his  doctrines,  and  appeal  from  his  decisions. 


SPEECH, 

On   the     Tariff,    delivered  in    the    House  of  Representatives, 
June  18,  1842. 


The  House  having  resolved  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  the 
bill  reported  by  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  and  that  by  the 
Committee  on  Manufactures,  together  with  the  amendment  offered  to  the 
latter  by  Mr.  Habersham,  being  under  consideration — 

Mr.  A.  V.  Brown  addressed  the  Committee  as  follows  : 
Mr.  Chairman:  I  have  searched  most  diligently  for  some 
redeeming  virtue  in  the  two  bills  reported  by  the  committees, 
which  might  so  far  reconcile  me  to  their  provisions  as  to  ex- 
cuse any  participation  on  my  part  in  their  discussion.  But  I 
have  searched  in  vain.  I  can  find  nothing — literally  nothing 
— to  rescue  them  from  the  deepest  and  most  unmitigated  ab- 
horrence. They  both  seek  to  revive  the  odious  principle  of 
direct  protection,  and  to  repudiate  the  most  solemn  and  sacred 
covenant  ever  entered  into  since  the  formation  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  But  I  mean  to  speak  only  to  one  of  these  bills — 
to  the  one  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Manufactures.  That, 
sir,  is  the  one  which  the  dominant  party  in  this  House  mean 
finally,  by  the  mere  power  of  numbers,  to  force  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  this  country.  I  wTill  not 'speak  to  the  Ways  and  Means, 
for  they  would  not  speak  to  their  own  bill — having  thrown  it 
upon  the  House,  without  any  report  illustrating  its  principles, 
or  explaining  its  details.  They  seem  to  have  gotten  it  up  on 
the  spur  of  the  occasion,  and  to  rely  on  nothing  for  its  support 
but  the  enormity  of  its  exactions,  and  the  poor  device  which 
they  have  labelled  on  its  front — that  it  is  a  bill  for  the  raising  of 
revenue, 

Mr.  Chairman,  by  the  act  of  1833,  all  the  duties  above  twenty 
per   cent.,  by  whatever  law  imposed,  were  brought  down  to 
that  amount;  and,  by  the  act  of  1841,  all  duties  below  twenty 
7 


82  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

per  cent,  were  raised  to  that.rate,  with  the  exceptions  contained 
in  the  act. 

By  these  two  acts,  we  have  a  full,  complete,  and  perfect 
tariff  system,  for  the  supply  of  the  treasury,  without  further 
legislation  on  the  subject.  Hence  it  is  that  I  assume  the  posi- 
tion, that  beyond  the  correction  of  the  error  of  last  session,  in 
regard  to  the  list  of  free  articles,  and  the  enactment  of  a  few 
obvious  provisions  in  relation  to  home  valuation,  we  ought  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  this  delicate  and  exciting  subject.  To 
take  it  up  for  thorough  revisal,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
higher  rate  of  duty,  I  hold  to  be  an  act  of  legislative  perfidy, 
which  can  find  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  this  country.  To 
no  member  here  can  it  be  necessary  to  refer  to  the  fierce  col- 
lision of  parties  on  the  tariffs  of  1816,  1824,  and  1828.  It  i3 
enough  to  say  that,  in  every  conflict,  the  doctrine  of  protection 
was  victorious.  What  sort  of  protection?  Was  it  only  inci- 
dental ?  or  was  it  claimed  as  a  distinctive  and  independent 
principle  of  the  Constitution?  Let  the  father  of  the  whole 
■ystem  tell  you.  Hear  him  who,  in  1833,  informs  us  that  he 
had  cherished  it  with  paternal  fondness,  and  that  his  affections 
even  then  (though  he  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  it)  were 
undiminished.  Replying  to  Mr.  Webster,  who  was  then  sepa- 
rating from  him  on  the  compromise  act,  he  says :  "  all  that 
was  settled  in  1816,  in  1824,  and  in  1828,  was,  that  protection 
should  be  afforded  by  high  duties,  without  regard  to  the  amount 
of  the  revenue  they  would  yield."  Mark  the  emphatic  admis- 
sion of  Mr.  Clay — "protection  without  regard  to  revenue."  It 
was  on  this  very  ground  that  all  three  of  these  acts  had  been 
so  warmly  opposed ;  but  yet  there  was  no  declaration  on  their 
face  that  such  was  their  object.  The  doctrine  dared  not  to 
show  itself  there,  lest  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the  country 
should  pass  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  it.  No,  sir ;  it 
skulked  behind  the  revenue  power,  meanly  evading  the  just  and 
manifest  principles  of  the  Constitution.  Such  a  device  could 
not  long  be  sustained,  nor  its  enormous  exactions  endured.  It 
disquieted  and  almost  convulsed  the  country.  It  filled  the  land 
with  apprehensions  of  ruin  and  disaster  on  the  one  hand,  and 
civil  war  on  the  other.  It  became  so  abhorrent  to  the  Ameri- 
can people,  "  that  he  who  had  sustained  it  with  paternal  fond- 


ON  -THE  TARIFF.  83 

ness,"  could  sustain  it  no  longer.  He  came  forward  with  the 
compromise  act  of  1833.  He  declared  that  the  American  sys- 
tem of  protection  must  go  down.  He  saw  it  in  the  deadly 
blows  which  President  Jackson  was  dealing  upon  it — he  saw  it 
in  the  solemn  protestations  of  every  southern  State  in  the  Union 
— he  saw  it  in  the  determined  spirit  of  resistance  in  South  Car- 
olina— and,  more  than  all,  he  both  saw  and  felt  it  in  the  then 
recent  elections,  which  had  all  gone  against  him  and  his  friends. 
Under  this  thorough  conviction,  (so  thorough,  that  no  argument 
of  Mr.  Webster,  his  great  compeer  in  establishing  the  system, 
could  shake  or  remove  it,)  Mr.  Clay  came  forward  with  the 
compromise. 

1  pause  here,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  order  that  you  may  consider 
the  position  of  the  two  great  parties  of  this  country  at  that 
eventful  moment.  The  one  was  insisting  on  the  permanent 
continuance  of  the  protective  system ;  the  other  was  boldly 
demanding  its  instant  repeal  and  total  abandonment.  Now, 
the  compromise  was  to  reconcile  these  hostile  parties — to  find 
some  middle  ground  on  which  both  could  stand,  and  the  Union 
be  preserved.  Mr.  Clay  himself  remarked  on  the  occasion : 
"  I  am  anxious  to  find  out  some  principle  of  mutual  accom- 
modation, to  satisfy,  as  far  as  practicable,  both  parties  ;  to  in- 
crease the  stability  of  our  legislation ;  and,  at  some  distant 
day,  (but  not  too  distant,  when  we  take  into  view  the  magni- 
tude of  the  interests  which  are  involved,)  to  bring  down  the 
rate  of  duties  to  that  revenue  standard  for  which  our  opponents 
had  so  long  contended." 

Here,  sir,  is  an  open  and  distinct  avowal  of  the  objects  and 
purposes  of  the  compromise.  That  it  was  intended  by  him  to 
be  a  permanent  settlement,  not  of  the  details,  but  of  the  great 
principles  of  the  future  tariff  legislation  of  the  country,  I  refer, 
for  further  illustration,  to  his  arguments  addressed  to  his  man- 
ufacturing friends  in  favor  of  its  adoption : 

"  The  most  that  can  be  objected  to  the  bill  by  those  with  whom  he  had 
co-operated  to  support  the  protective  6ystem  was,  that,  in  consideration  of 
nine  and  one-half  years  of  peace,  certainty,  and  stability,  the  manufacturers 
relinquished  some  advantages  which  they  now  enjoy.  What  was  the  prin- 
ciple which  had  always  been  contended  for  in  this,  and  in  the  other  House  ? 
That,  after  the  accumulation  of  capital  and  skill,  the  manufacturers  wou]d 
be  able  to  stand  alone,  unaided  by  the  Government,  in  competition  with 


84  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

the  imported  articles  from  any  quarter.  Now,  give  us  time  ;  cease  all  fluc- 
tuations and  agitations  for  nine  years  ;  and  the  manufacturers,  in  every 
branch,  will  sustain  themselves  against  foreign  competition.  If  we  can^ee 
our  way  clearly  for  nine  years  to  come,  we  can  safely  leave  posterity  to 
provide  for  the  rest.  If  the  tariff  be  overthrown,  (as  may  be  the  case  at 
the  next  session,)  the  country  will  be  plunged  into  extreme  distress  and 
agitation.  I  (said  Mr..  Clay)  want  harmony;  I  wi-h  to  see  the  restoration 
of  those  ties  which  have  carried  ua  triumphantly  through  two  wars  ;  I  de- 
light not  in  this  perpetual  turmoil.  Let  us  have  peace,  and  become  once 
more  united  as  a  band  of  brothers." 

Sir,  I  have  made  these  extracts  and  references  in  order  to 
remind  this  House,  and  this  country,  of  the  true  object  and 
extent  of  this  compromise.  It  was  accepted.  When  he,  [Mr. 
Calhoun,]  .who  had  as  strenuously  opposed,  as  Mr.  Clay  had 
supported  the  system,  rose  up  in  his  place  in  the  Senate  chamber 
and  accepted  it,  the  galleries  responded  in  tumultuous  appro- 
bation. The  whole  nation  responded  with  joy  and  acclama- 
tion. The  assent  of  Congress,  and  the  approbation  of  the 
President,  soon  crowned  this  noble  act  of  concession  on  both 
sides,  and  the  process  of  reduction  commenced.  It  has  pro- 
gressed through  all  the  stages  of  the  law,  until  we  are  now 
within  a  few  days  of  its  entire  completion.  Yes,  sir;  and 
when  the  30th  of  this  month  shall  have  arrived,  the  whole 
South  and  Southwest  can  rise  up  as  one  man,  and  proudly 
boast  that,  although  their  burdens  were  great,  and  the  process 
of  alleviation  slow  and  tedious,  yet  they  have  adhered  to  the 
covenant,  not  only  in  the  spirit,  but  to  the  very  letter  of  it. 

But,  sir,  when  that  day  shall  come,  and  this  bill  shall  have 
been  passed,  what  can  the  North  say?  Can  she  point  to  the 
same  preservation  of  her  plighted  faith  in  vestal  purity  and 
honor?  No.  I  repeat,  if  this  bill  be  passed,  she  can  do  no 
such  thing.  The  bill  itself  would  wring  from  her  inmost  soul 
the  reluctant  confession,  that  she  had  adhered  to  the  compro- 
mise only  whilst  it  was  profitable,  and  cast  it  off  the  moment 
when  the  other  party  was  to  have  entered  on  its  enjoyment. 

The  present  distinguished  Governor  of  Massachusetts  seems 
to  have  contemplated  the  possibility  of  something  of  this 
sort. 

"  Suppose,  then,"  (said  he,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,)  "  that 
South    Carolina  should   abide  by  the  compromise,  whilst  she  supposes  it 


ON  THE  TARIFF. 


85 


beneficial  to  the  tariff  States  and  injurious  to  her;  and  when  that  period 
shall  close,  the  friends  of  protection  shall  then  propose  to  re-estahlish  the 
system  :  what  honorable  man  who  votes  for  this  bill  would  sustain  such  a 
measure  1  Would  not  South  Carolina  say,  You  have  no  right  to  change 
this  law — it  was  founded  on  compromise  ;  you  have  had  the  benefit  of  your 
side  of  the  bargain,  and  now  I  demand  mine?  Who  could  answer  such  a 
declaration  '!  If,  under  such  circumstances,  you  were  to  proceed  to  abolish 
the  law,  would  not  South  Carolina  have  much  more  just  cause  of  complaint 
and  disaffection  than  she  now  has  V 

What  Governor  Davis,  then  a  Representative. in  Congress, 
said  and  asked  in  relation  to  South  Carolina,  might  have  been 
said  and  asked  of  all  the  other  anti-tariff  States.  It  was  no 
compromise  between  individuals — it  was  one  between  large 
.sections  of  the  Union.  It  was  a  compromise  between  oppo- 
sing interests ;  and  neither  can  abandon  it  with  honor,  until 
each  has  enjoyed  it  for  at  least  an  equal  period  of  time.  Sir, 
I  repeat,  (because  the  sentiment  has  left  an  indelible  impres- 
sion on  my  mind,)  that  the  North  cannot  repudiate  this  con- 
tract, after  having  pocketed  millions  upon  millions  under  it 
Mr.  Clay  himself,  whatever  he  may  do  now,  could  not  then 
submit  to  the  degrading  anticipation.  In  the  speech  which 
ushered  the  compromise  act  before  the  world,  he  said : 

"  But  if  the  measure  should  be  carried  by  the  common  consent  of  both 
parties,  we  shall  have  all  security.  History  will  faithfully  record  the  trans- 
action— narrate  under  what  circumstances  the  bill  was  passed  ;  that  it  was 
a  pacifying  measure  ;  that  it  was  as  oil  poured  from  the  vessel  of  the  Union, 
to  restore  peace  and  harmony  to  the  country.  When  all  this  was  known, 
what  Congress,  what  Legislature  would  mar  the  guaranty  1  What  man, 
who  is  entitled  to  deserve  the  character  of  an  American  statesman,  would 
stand  up  in  his  place,  in  either  House  of  Congress,  and  disturb  the  treaty 
of  peace  and  amity  ')"■ 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  know  not  how  this  bill  can  escape  the  stern 
and  withering  rebuke  contained  in  these  extracts,  but  by  the 
denial  that  it  does  revive  the  protective  system,  so  distinctly 
and  solemnly  renounced  by  the  compromise.  True,  it  is  not 
expressly  revived,  in  terms,  on  the  face  of  the  bill.  Its  advo- 
cates, like  those  who  originally  established  it,  are  too  sagaci- 
ous thus  to  label  its  unconstitutionality  on  its  front.  Like 
them,  they  hide  its  protective  character  from  judical  detection. 
Still,  sir,  no  man  can  doubt  the  fact,  who  will  look  either  at  the 
origin  of  the  bill,  the  evidence  on  which  it  was  prepared,  orthe^ 


86  '  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECEES. 

rate  of  duties  it  establishes.     I  propose  to  examine  and  test 
it  in  all  these  particulars. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  prepared  and  reported  by  the 
Committee  on  Manufactures  and  not  by  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means.  It  is  the  peculiar  business  of  the 
latter  committee  to  look  after  the  condition  of  the  treasury, 
and  to  see  that  it  is  kept  in  condition  to  meet  all  the  appropria- 
tions made  by  law  ;  but  the  Committee  on  Manufactures, 
as  its  very  name  imports,  has  no  such  duties  assigned  to  it. 
Its  whole  structure,  for  a  long  series  of  years,  evinces  no  pur- 
pose connected  with  the  revenues  of  the  country.  Look  at  the 
constitution  of  the  present  committee.  Massachusetts  has  one, 
Vermont  one,  New  York  one,  New  Jersey  one,  Pennsylvania 
one,  and  even  little  Rhode  Island  one  ;  whilst  there  were  only 
three  from  the  whole  Union  beside.  Now,  sir,  why  this  amaz- 
ing disproportion  in  favor  of  the  Northern  States?  Evidently  be- 
cause they  were  manufacturing  States,  deeply  interested  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  committee.  The  States  of  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  Alabama,  were  agricultural 
States,  and  therefore  were  supplied  only  with  two  members; 
whilst  the  whole  West — all  the  ten  or  twelve  States  lying  on  the 
majestic  Mississippi  and  its  noble  tributaries — had  only  one 
member  of  the  committee.  No  one  here,  I  hope,  will  be  so  un- 
gracious as  to  suppose  that  the  Speaker  ever  constituted  such 
a  committee  with  the  slighest  reference  to  the  raising  of  reve- 
nue. No,  sir,  the  Speaker  could  never  have  had  such  purpose. 
But  the  tariff  party  of  this  House,  ever  watchful  of  such  things, 
looked  over  the  committees,  after  their  appointment,  and  found, 
in  the  structure  of  that  on  manufactures,  one  more  favorable 
to  their  views  than  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 

By  the  closest  concert  of  action,  they  wrested  the  President's 
message  from  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  to  whom  it 
rightfully  belonged,  and  transferred  it  to  the  Committee  on 
Manufactures.  So  much  for  the  geographical  structure  of  the 
committee.  I  now  ask,  upon  whose  and  what  sort  of  evi- 
dence was  this  bill  prepared?  Was  it  on  the  oral  or  written 
statements  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  wants  and 
condition  of  the  treasury  now,  or  for  years  to  come?  No,  sir; 
we  heard  not  a  word  from  him.     Was  any  witness  called,  or 


ON  THE  TARIFF.  87 

statement  received,  on  the  subject?  Not  one.  Even  the  re- 
port of  the  majority  of  the  committee  glances  but  slightly  over 
the  subject  of  revenue,  barely  saying  enough  about  it  to  save 
even  a  decent  appearance.  Sir,  the  information  on  which 
this  bill  was  prepared,  was  derived  wholly  from  the  manufac- 
turers— several  of  them  the  same  persons  who  were  here  in 
1828.  The  majority  of  the  committee  have  complained  of 
the  House  on  the  subject  of  testimony.  I  now  complain  of 
them.  The  House  refused  to  give  them  the  power  to  send  for 
witnesses :  they  determined  they  would  have  them  without 
sending  after  them.  The  House  refused  to  give  them  power 
to  qualify  witnesses  m  the  case  :  they  determined  to  take  their 
testimony  without  oath.  Nay,  more :  the  House  amended 
their  application,  by  saying  that  none  but  disinterested  wit- 
nesses should  be  examined,  and  then  laid  their  proposition,  so 
amended,  on  the  table.  In  the  face  of  this  solemn  decision  of 
the  House — made  by  ayes  and  noes — the  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee determined  they  would  examine  witnesses  directly  in- 
terested in  the  case*— men  whose  daily  bread  or  annual  profits 
on  their  capital  depended  on  the  answers  which  they  were 
to  give.  Was  anything  like  this  ever  heard  of  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  any  of  the  courts  of  this  country — to  receive  testi- 
mony from  those  directly  interested?  Sir,  it  was  never  before 
heard  of  in  any  investigation  where  truth  was  to  be  obtained, 
or  justice  to  be  administered.  Let  me  not  be  told — as  I  was 
on  a  former  occasion,  when  I  had  no  opportunity  to  reply — 
that  none  can  know  the  facts  as  well  as  the  manufacturers 
themselves.  True ;  and  it  often  happens  that  no  one  knows 
some  material  fact  so  well  as  the  plaintiff  or  defendant  in  a 
cival  action  :  and  yet  you  would  never  examine  either  of  them 
to  prove  such  fact  in  his  own  favor.  So,  in  criminal  cases, 
none  know  the  facts  as  well  as  the  culprit  himself;  but  yet  you 
never  examine  him  on  trial  for  his  own  justification.  But  I  go 
beyond  these  analogies,  and  maintain  that  this  country  is  filled 
with  persons  who  have  discontinued  or  retired  from  manufac- 
turing establishments,  or  who  are  otherwise  well-informed  and 
impartial  on  all  the  subjects  within  the  range  of  our  investiga- 
tion.    So  far  from  having  called  on  such  as  these,  not  a  single 


88 


CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 


person  whose  statement  was  received  is  now  recollected,  who 
was  not  deeply  interested. 

Here,  then,  are  two  important  facts,  that  six  out  of  nine  of  the 
committee  were  from  manufacturing  States  ;  and  the  testimony 
on  which  the  bill  was  constructed,  furnished  by  interested 
manufacturers,  who  have  voluntarily  left  their  homes,  and 
travelled  great  distances  for  that  purpose  alone.  And  from 
both  of  them  I  infer  that  the  protection  of  manufactures  was 
the  controlling  consideration  in  the  preparation  of  this  bill. 
But,  sir,  I  will  now  look  into  the  bill  itself  for  intrinsic  evidence 
of  the  fact.  We  have  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Clay  himself,  that 
"  all  that  was  settled  in  1816,  1824,  and  1828,  was,  that  pro- 
tection should  be  afforded  by  high  duties,  without  regard  to 
revenue."  Now,  test  this  bill  by  that  of  1828,  and  see  what  a 
vast  number  of  articles  are  now  to  pay  the  same  duty  as  in 
1828,  or  so  nearly  the  same  as  not  to  change  the  protective 
character  of  the  duty. 

I  will  present  you  with  the  following  list  of  comparative 
duties  : 


October,  1828. 

Present  bill. 

Cloths  and  cassimeres, 

33}^  to  45  per  cent, 
on  various  minima. 

40.     cts. 

sq.  yard. 

Other  woollen  manufac- 

tures 

same 

40 

do. 

Flannels  and  baizes 

14         sq. 

yard. 

14 

do. 

Clothes  ready  made 

50         per 

cent. 

50 

per  cent. 

Brown  sugar 

3         cts. 

?   B, 

2 

cts.  ^  ft> 

Lead,  pig, 

3 

do. 

2J4 

do. 

Cordage,  tarred   - 

5 

do. 

5 

do. 

Copper,  rods  and  bolts 

4 

do. 

4 

do. 

Iron,  cables  and  chains 

i  -               3 

do. 

2 

do. 

anchors 

2 

do. 

2 

do. 

nails 

5 

do. 

4 

do. 

anvils 

2 

do. 

2 

do. 

castings 

i& 

do. 

ij£ 

do. 

sheet  or  hoop 

V4 

do. 

2M 

do. 

Shoes,  silk 

30  cts. 

pr  pair. 

25  cts. 

per  pair. 

prunella 

25 

do. 

20 

do. 

leather 

25 

do. 

20 

do. 

Boots  andb  ootees 

$1  50 

do. 

$1  25 

do. 

To  this  list  might  be  added  a  great  number  of  other  articles 


ON  THE  TARIFF. 


89 


which  are  taxed  at  rates  precisely  the  same  as  by  the  act  of 
1828,  or  so  nearly  the  same  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that  this  bill, 
in  its  general  structure,  is  highly  protective.  I  beg  leave  to 
present  another  short  statement,  which,  I  think,  can  scarcely 
fail  to  convince  the  most  skeptical. 

Table  of  duly  per  cent,  on  certain  articles  of  British  manufacture,  calculated 
upon  thn  cost  of  manufacture,  according  to  the  tariff  of  18.8^  1832,  1833. 


fcf 

i 

'tZ 

Set 

*•* 

• 

CO 

O   X) 

no 

oo 

CO 
00 

CO 
CO 

I— t 

.22  r_ ' 

t>» 

I— 1 

!~H 

O     q 

.' 

u 

<*-. 

<++ 

«^-l 

P.3 

T3 

a> 

o 

o 

o 

o    *- 

0> 

ft) 

te 

fc 

b 

o 

k 

"*H 

'£ 

"ju 

s  & 

a* 

O 

a 

<*j 

a 

K       C— 1 

p 

O 

_Eh_ 
145 

Eh 
125 

112| 

„_PQ 
20 

£ 

Sheetings 

6cs. 

1 — 

120 

Checks  - 

8 

109 

109 

100 

20 

100 

Calicoes 

12 

72 

72 

68 

20 

55 

Flannels 

15 

150 

106 

0H 

20 

100 

Baizes 

25 

90 

64 

66 

20 

100 

Kerseymeres 

$1  25 

90 

50 

47 

20 

70 

Bar  iron  per  ton 

38  40 

100 

112 

88 

20 

100 

Coal,            do 

2  40 

50 

50 

69 

20 

75 

Mr.  Chairman,  what  plea  or  apology  can  be  offered  for  such 
a  wranton  breach  of  the  compromise,  as  I  think  these  tables  es- 
tablish? In  the  first  place,  it  is  said  that  without  the  propos- 
ed increase  of  duties  beyond  the  rates  agreed  on  in  1833,  some 
of  the  manufactories  cannot  exist  at  all,  whilst  Aher3  can- 
not realize  reasonable  and  satisfactory  profits  without  it.  In 
reply,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  some  of  them  ought  to  go 
down.  One  of  the  crying  evils  of  this  manufacturing  system 
is,  that  nothing  can  be  attempted  in  foreign  countries  which  is 
not  soon  essayed  to  be  imitated  here.  No  matter  what  it 
might  be — however  unsuited  to  our  condition — it  must  be  tried, 
under  the  favorite  principle,  that  if  it  be  found  that  it  cannot 
succeed  in  this  country  by  its  own  merits,  we  have  only  to  in- 
sert a  new  clause  in  the  tariff  bill  for  its  protection,  and  thereby 
make  it  a  profitable  concern.  It  were  better,  far  better,  for 
our  countrymen  to  betake  themselves  to  the  substantial  and 
useful  branches  of  manufacturing,  which  can  and  will  succeed 
by  their  own  intrinsic   importance,  rather  than  be  running  after 


90  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

the  many  useless  and  silly  inventions  of  the  Old  World.  Let 
me  give  you  an  example.  Some  years  ago,  the  manufacture 
of  patent  steel  pens  was  commenced  abroad,  where  it  might 
have  been,  probably,  well  enough.  But  straightway  some  of 
our  Yankee  friends  took  it  into  their  heads  that  they  could 
Carry  on  the  same  business  here.  Well,  away  they  went  at  it, 
and  succeeded  in  making  quite  a  superior  article ;  they  mo- 
nopolized, for  awhile,  all  the  common-school  patronage  of  the 
Northern  States.  Presently,  however,  the  foreign  article  began 
to  come  in  cheaper  in  price,  and  quite  as  good  for  use,  superse- 
ding, in  a  great  degree,  those  manufactured  here  at  a  much 
higher  cost.  All  this  has  been  of  recent  occurrence;  and,  ac- 
cordingly, at  the  present  session,  we  had  before  the  committee 
the  American  manufacturer  begging  for  protection  against  the 
foreign  article ;  in  other  words,  asking  Congress  to  impose  a 
tax  on  all  the  poor  and  orphan  children  of  those  States  for  his 
benefit.  Sir,  it  would  have  been  better  for  those  children  to 
have  raised,  by  contribution,  a  sufficient  sum  to  buy  out  this 
man's  establishment,  and  to  have  cast  it  into  the  Hudson,  than 
for  Congress  to  have  granted  his  petition.  If  a  mechanical 
business  of  no  more  importance  to  the  country  than  that,  can- 
not support  itself  without  the  aid  of  unjust  and  excessive  tax- 
ation, let  it  go  down;  and  let  those  engaged  in  such  betake 
themselves  to  agriculture,  to  commerce,  or  to  other  mechanical 
employments  of  greater  importance.  I  could  famish  many 
such  cases^-all  showing  a  strong  inclination  to  avoid  the  more 
laborious  pursuits  of  life,  and  to  resort  to  every  light  and  trivial 
handicraft,  whether  the  situation  of  the  country,  or  the  price  of 
labor,  will  justify  it  or  not. 

Mr.  Chairman,  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  precise  objections 
to  the  rate  of  duties  established  by  the  compromise  act,  which 
we  are  now  considering.  I  entertain  no  hostility  to  the  manu- 
factories of  the  United  States.  I  cherish,  for  the  valuable  and 
important  ones,  the  very  highest  regard ;  but  the  light  and  fri- 
volous ones  I  am  willing  to  see  go  down  to-morrow.  There  are 
more  noble  and  invigorating  employments,  throughout  this 
broad  land,  for  all  who  may  be  engaged  in  such.  But  to  the 
important  ones,  I  will  cheerfully  give  all  the  incidental  advan- 
tages which  the  collection  of  the  national  revenue  can  bestow. 


ON  THE  TARIFF,  91 

Such  incidental  encouragement  is  given  by  the  compromise, 
and,  I  contend,  is  entirely  sufficient  to  sustain  the  chief  manu- 
facturing interests  of  this  country — such  as  the  woollen,  the 
glass,  the  leather,  the  cotton,  the  iron,  &c. 

That  act  allows  three  distinct  points  of  incidental  pro- 
tection : 

1st.  It  imposes  a  duty  of  20  percent,  ad  valorem,  or  on  the 
value  of  the  goods  imported. 

2d.  It  provides  that  that  value  shall  be  fixed  in  reference  to 
our  own  markets,  instead  of  those  of  foreign  countries,  a3 
was  the  case  before  the  compromise. 

3d.  That  the  duties  shall  be  paid  down  in  cash,  instead  of 
being  secured  by  bond,  on  a  credit,  as  formerly. 

This  is  the  rate  of  duties,  and  the  extent  of  protection,  for 
which  I  contend,  and  those  with  whom  (with  few  exceptions)  I 
am  politically  acting.  We  find  this  rate  of  duties  already  ex- 
isting and  established  by  law — a  law  intended,  by  those  who 
established  it,  to  be  fixed  and  permanent ;  a  law  which  he  who 
proposed  it  [Mr.  Clay]  denominated  "  a  treaty  of  amity  and 
peace;"  which  no  man,  who  was  entitled  to  deserve  the  char- 
acter of  an  American  statesman,  would  dare  stand  up  in  either 
House  of  Congress  and  disregard. 

Now,  sir,  as  to  the  ability  of  the  manufacturing  establish- 
ments to  sustain  themselves  at  the  rate  of  duties  which  we  are 
insisting  on. 

The  rate  of  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  the  home  valua- 
tion, including  something  for  cash  duties,  I  estimate  as  equiva- 
lent, at  the  least,  to  twenty-five  per  cent. 

For  illustration :  An  article  is  purchased  in  Liverpool  at  a 
cost  of  $100.  But  the  same  article,  when  brought  to  this  coun- 
try, may  be  fairly  worth  $120.  Now  the  duty  is  not  to  be  laid 
on  the  $100,  its  cost  abroad  ;  but  on  the  $120,  its  value  here — 
making  a  difference  in  favor  of  the  manufacturers  of  four  per 
cent.  Making  some  little  allowance,  also,  for  the  payment  in 
cash,  instead  of  credits,  I  assume  twenty-five  per  cent,  as  the 
actual  rate  or  degree  of  protection  incidentally  afforded  by  the 
compromise  act.  In  the  allowance  of  twenty  per  cent,  as  the 
difference  between  the  foreign  and  home  valuation,  I  estimate 
transportation,   insurance,  &c,  to  be  equal  to  about  ten  per 


92  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

cent.;  and  the  other  ten  are  allowed  for  profits.  The.  question, 
then,  recurs — is  this  duty  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  a  sufficient 
protection  to  enable  the  manufacturers  to  sustain  themselves? 

Sir,  it  must  be,  at  the  first  blush,  exceedingly  strange  if  they 
can  not.  What !  not  keep  up,  when  the  Government  grants 
them  an  advantage  of  one-fourth  over  all  foreign  competition! 
Not  keep  up,  when  the  Government  turns  every  $4,000  of  their 
products  into  $5,000;  every  $40,000  into  $50,000 ;  and  every 
$80,000  into  $100,000  !  for  that  is  precisely  the  effect  of  the  duty 
imposed  on  the  foreign  producer.  Still,  however,  great  as  this  ad- 
vantage is,  the  statements  laid  before  the  committee  insist  that, if 
the  compromise  act  (equal,  as  I  have  stated,  to  twenty-four  or 
twenty-five  per  cent.)  shall  go  into  effect,  most,  if  not  all,  of  our 
manufactories  must  go  down.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  free  to  de- 
clare that  I  do  not  believe  these  statements.  They  are  made 
by  men  deeply  and  directly  interested-—whose  wealth  or  poverty 
was  at  stake;  made  without  any  sanction  of  an  oath,  and 
with  no  direct  responsibility  whatever.  Manufacturing,  like 
almost  everything  else,  has  been  over  done.  The  high  and 
exorbitant  protection  of  former  times,  has  induced  too  many  to 
rush  into  the  business;  and,  on  this  account,  I  dare  say,  many 
establishments  will  have  to  go  down — not  for  the  want  of  ad- 
equate protection,  but  for  want  of  real  capital  originally.  All 
the  moneyed  fictions  of  the  day  are  now  vanishing,  and  none 
but  the  real,  substantial  capitalists  can  stand  the  shock. 
Even  some  who  had  such  capital,  have  lived  in  such  luxury,  or 
so  disregarded  the  wholesome  suggestions  of  a  prudent  econo- 
my, that  they  must  and  will  be  compelled  to  go  down.  So  it  is 
with  all  the  other  pursuits  of  life.  Like  causes  of  imprudence 
and  extravagance  have  ruined  them  in  like  manner.  But  I 
do  firmly  believe  that  our  woollen,  cotton,  iron,  glass,  leather, 
and  all  our  important  manufactories,  can  be  sustained  at  a 
duty  of  24  or  25  per  cent.;  all,  certainly,  that  arc  located  un- 
der favorable  circumstances,  and  are  conducted  with  that  in- 
dustry and  rigid  economy  which  characterized  this  country  be- 
fore the  late  inundation  of  extravagance,  speculation,  and  folly. 
None  of  them  may  realize  the  same  extent  of  profit  as  former- 
ly; but  they  must  be  content  with  less:  all  our  occupations 
must  be  content  with  less.     The  farmers,  graziers,  and  plan- 


ON  THE  TARIFF.  93 

ters,have  long  since  become  content  to  realize  3,  4,  or  5  per 
cent,  on  their  investment  in  land,  stock,  laborers,  &c.  If, 
however,  25  per  cent,  will  not  do, rather  than  increase  the  duty 
on  the  consumer,  and  thereby  add  to  the  burdens  of  those  who 
are  already  sufficiently  prostrated,  I  would  recommend  the 
suggestion  contained  in  the  minority  report : 

'"  The  valuable  principle  of  our  Government  is  equal  rights  and  equal 
protection  to  all.  If  you  encroach  upon  the  rights  or  interests  of  one  for 
the  benefit  of  another,  you  violate  this  great  principle,  which  lies  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  Government.  Why  sacrifice  any]  The  duty  on 
wool,  by  the  proposed  bill,  is  twenty-three  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  and  four 
cents  per  pound.  Strike  off  the  four  cents,  (leaving,  under-  my  proposed 
rate  of  duty,  twenty  five  per  cent.)  and  you  add  to  the  profits  of  the  wool 
factory  of  Dutchess  county  (above  referred  to)  $7,000,  or  five  per.  cent., 
on  the  capital,  and  still  leave  twenty-three  (twenty-five)  per  cent,  ad  val- 
orem, as  a  protection  to  the  wool-grower.  Strike  off  a  part  of  the  duty 
proposed  on  pig-iron,  and  you  add  to  the  profits  of  all  the  workers  in  iron 
in  the  United  States,  and  still  leave  the  producer  a  heavy  protection. 
Strike  ofF  but  one-fourth  from  the  duty  on  dressed  or  tanned  leather,  and 
you  at  once  enable  the  shoe  and  boot-maker  better  able  to  compete  with 
the  foreign  labor  whilst  the  tanner  will  still  enjoy  a  heavy  protection.  Re- 
duce the  duty  on  all  other  raw  materials  used  in  manufactures  to  a  revenue 
duty,  (twenty-five  per  cent.,)  and  you  relieve  all  other  branches  of  manu- 
factures. 

"  As  evidence  of  the  effect  which  the  reduction  of  the  duties  on  the  raw 
material  would  have  on  the  profits  of  the  manufacturer,  we  will  again  re- 
fer to  the  statements  annexed  to  the  report  of  the  majority.  The  average 
price  of  wool  in  this  country  appears  to  be  about  40  cents  a  pound.  The 
average  in  Europe  is  about  twenty-five  cents.  A  20  per  cent,  duty  and  freight 
would  add  about  6  cents. — say  it  would  be  imported  here  at  31  cents,  and 
sold  to  the  manufacturer  here  at  that  price;  he,  thereby,  saving  9  cents  per 
pound.  The  amount  of  wool  produced  in  England  alone  (according  to  Mr. 
McCulloch)  is,  in  value,  about  £3,000,000,  or  nearly  $15,000,000.  The 
duty  proposed  by  the  bill  is  23  per  cent.,  and  4  cents  per  pound,  to  protect 
the  wool-grower.  In  England  the  duty  is  only  1  cent  per  pound  to  protect 
the  wool-grower  there.  The  cost  of  pig-iron  in  New  York  is  $30  per  ton. 
The  foreign  cost  of  the  best  Scotch  pig-iron  is  about  $17  50.  The  duty 
proposed  by  the  act  is  $8  per  ton,  or  nearly  one-half  of  the  first  cost  of  the 
best  Scotch  pig-iron.  By  the  proposed  bill,  dressed  or  tanned  skins  and 
hides  are  to  be  subjected  to  a  duty  varying  from  $1  25  to  $4  per  dozen; 
and  sole  and  band  leather  to  8  cents  per  pound.  Undressed  hides,  however, 
(as  they  are  the  raw  materials  of  the  tanner,)  are  admitted  free  of  duty,  and 
are  imported  to  the  amount,  in  value,  of  $2,750,000.  If  then,  the  manu- 
facturers of  wool,  iron,  and  leather,  are  really,  or  would  be,  under  a  protec- 


94  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

tion  of  only  25  per  cent,  in  the  distressed  condition  in  which  they  are  rep- 
resented to  be,  we  may  give  them  essential  relief  by  reducing  the  duty  on 
the  raw  material — by  subjecting  it  to  a  moderate  duty  only,  instead  of  a 
duty  of  exclusion,  as  in  the  three  cases  we  have  named. " 

In  addition  to  all  this,  it  is  well  understood  that  an  unsound, 
inflated  paper-money  system,  which  has  abounded  in  this 
country,  has  operated  very  unfavorably  on  the  manufacturers. 
This  inflated  paper  system  has,  or  rather  had,  raised  the  prices 
of  all  our  merchandise  and  property  far  above  their  intrinsic  val- 
ue. The  effect  of  this  on  the  subject  we  are  investigating  was  this: 
The  English  manufacturer  could  ship  his  goods  to  this  country, 
sell  them  at  auction  on  a  little  time,  or  through  the  agency  of  some 
house  in  this  country,  "  at  the  high  but  artificial  prices"  of  our 
paper-money  system  ;  and  then  vest  the  proceeds  in  cotton  or 
tobacco,  whose  prices  were  not  regulated  here  by  paper-money, 
but  by  the  markets  abroad,  where  the  currency  was  sound ; 
and,  by  means  of  this  purchase  of  produce,  realize  the  full 
value  of  his  goods,  even  after  paying  the  duties  in  this  coun- 
try. The  artificially  high  prices  here  were  equal  to  the  duty 
paid  ;  and  the  investment  in  cotton,  rice,  or  tobacco,  at  prices 
regulated  by  the  sounder  currencies  abroad,  enabled  them  to 
import  and  sell  their  merchandise,  greatly  to  the  annoyance 
of  our  own  manufacturers.  The  United  States  is  now  rap- 
idly returning  to  a  sound  currency,  which,  of  itself,  will  greatly 
benefit  the  manufacturer.  Aided  by  this  restoration  of  our 
currency,  and  the  duties  contemplated  by  the  compromise  act, 
the  manufacturer  can  not  fail,  in  my  opinion,  to  realize  profits 
at  least  equal  to  those  of  the  agricultural  portion  of  our  popu- 
lation. The  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  and  a  full  equivalent  for 
home  valuation  and  cash  duties,  I  have  stated  at  the  sum  of 
25  per  cent.  In  effect,  it  will  operate  much  more  than  that,  in  fa- 
vor of  the  manufacturers.  It  will  drive  adventurers  out  of  the 
importing  market,  fictitious  capital  will  disappear,  and  none 
but  responsible  and  discreet  merchants  will  import  foreign  mer- 
chandise into  the  country.  Our  markets,  no  longer  glutted 
with  imprudent  importations,  nor  disturbed  by  forced  sales, 
will  acquire  a  steadiness  and  uniformity  highly  beneficial  to 
the  manufacturer. 

Mr.  Chairman,  having  stated  the  rate  of  duties  agreed  on 


ON  THE  TARIFF.  95 

in  the  compromise  act;  and  having  shown,  I  think,  clearly,  that 
they  are  sufficient  to  sustain  our  most  important  manufacto- 
ries, if  not  all  of  them,  I  now  demand  to  know  on  what  prin- 
ciple of  justice  or  propriety  the  duties  should  be  carried  higher 
than  25  per  cent.  ?  The  statements  of  the  manufacturers,  pub- 
lished in  the  report  of  the  committee,  all  put  it  on  the  ground 
of  protecting  American  against  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe. 
Sir,  this  is  a  specious  pretence.  It  is  taken  up  and  repeated 
by  the  public  press,  until  it  has  evidently  made  some  impression 
on  the  public  mind.  Well,  what  is  the  force  of  the  argument  ? 
It  is  admitted  that  labor  is  cheaper  in  most  countries  of  Eu- 
rope than  in  this ;  and  it  is  to  supply  this  very  defect  that  the 
Government  has  given  the  incidental  advantage  of  25  per  cent, 
in  the  collection  of  her  revenue.  I  contend  that  this,  with  the 
advantage  of  cheaper  living,  more  abundant  water-power,  our 
inexhaustible  supplies  of  fuel,  the  lightness  of  our  taxation  on 
property,  and  the  general  advantages  of  our  free  institutions, 
fully  make  up  for  this  inequality  of  labor.  But  suppose  they 
do  not ;  what  right  have  the  manufacturers  to  ask  the  Govern- 
ment to  impose  a  tax  on  all  the  other  people  of  the  United 
States,  in  order  to  raise  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  this  alleg- 
ed difference  in  the  price  of  labor — to  be  paid,  not  into  the 
treasury,  but  into  the  pockets  of  the  manufacturers  !  What 
right  have  they  "  to  send  round  the  hat"  to  the  farmer,  the  gra- 
zier, the  planter,  the  carpenter,  the  blacksmith,  and  the  other 
mechanics  of  the  country,  to  collect  from  each  his  five,  ten, 
fifty,  or  one  hundred  dollars,  to  be  paid  over  to  the  iron-master, 
to  the  wool  or  the  cotton  manufacturer,  to  the  workers  in  glass 
or  in  leather,  to  equalize  the  prices  of  labor? — who,  in  turn,  is 
to  go  round  for  them?  Protection  to  all  would  but  lead 
to  prohibition;  prohibition  would  lead  to  the  destruction 
of  all  revenue  from  imports;  and  then  comes  direct  tax- 
ation on  all  property — real,  personal,  and  mixed.  But  can 
the  other  interests  of  the  country  sustain  this  sort  of  contribu- 
tion, to  be  levied  annually  off  them,  for  the  benefit  of  the  man- 
ufacturing interests  ?  The  planter  can  find  but  a  poor  market 
for  his  cotton,  rice,  or  tobacco.  The  grazier  finds  his  stock 
accumulating  on  his  hands,  until  their  very  support  threatens 
him  with  ruin.     The  grain-grower  is  compelled  to  sell  at  sac- 


96  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

rificing  prices,  or  to  leave  his  wheat,  and  corn,  and  rye,  and 
oats,  to  rot  on  his  farm.  Yet,  in  the  midst  of  this  universal 
gloom  and  depression,  they  are  called  upon  to  contribute  more 
than  one-fourth  of  their  hard  earnings  to  a  single  favored  class 
of  their  countrymen  ! 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  boldly  maintain,  that,  with  the  protection 
of  twenty-five  per  cent.,  and  the  other  incidental  advantages 
growing  out  ol  the  cash  system  of  duties,  and  the  return  to  a 
sound  currency  in  this  country,  the  manufacturers  can  make  a 
larger — much  larger — profit  on  their  capital  than  those  relying 
on  agriculture  and  the  ordinary  mechanic  arts  can  possibly  do. 

Let  us  examine  a  little  the  enormous  duties  proposed  by  this 
bill,  remembering  always  that  they  are  so  much  taxes  imposed 
on  one  portion  of  the  people  for  the  benefit  of  another  who 
choose  to  engage  in  a  business  which,  they  say,  a  premium,  or 
bounty,  or  protection  of  one-fourth  will  not  sustain. 

I  begin  with  iron,  which  all  who  cultivate  the  earth  must 
have — the  plough,  the  axe,  the  hoe,  the  saw,  the  wedge,  the 
nail,  &c,  &c. 

The  bill  proposes  the  following  duties : 

On  iron  castings,  vessels,  &c.  1£  cts.  per  ft>. 

blacksmith  hammers,  &c.  2  do. 

sheet  or  hoop  -         -         -         -     2-J-         do. 

nails,  wrought         -         -         •         -4  do. 

cut 3  do. 

bar,  rolled      -  125  per  cent, 

hammered      -  85  do. 

A  knowledge  of  the  prices,  at  our  chief  cities,  of  the  four  or 
five  first  named  articles,  will  show  the  enormous  per  centage 
which  they  pay.  "Wrought  nails,  for  instance,  sold,  in  January 
last,  (1842.)  in  New  York,  at  about  ten  cents  ;  here  they  are 
put  down  at  four  cents  duty ;  cut  nails,  at  the  same  time  and 
place,  sold  for  five  and  five  and  a  half  cents  per  pound;  here 
they  are  taxed  three  cents — more  than  one-half  of  the  price 
of  the  article.  Every  farmer  may  thus  be  enabled  to  see  how 
he  is  taxed  in  that  article,  which  he  can  not  dispense  with. 

Let  us  glance  a  little,  also,  at  woollens  : 

"3d  SEcxroN.  On  woollen  yarn,  four  cents  per  pound,  and  thirty  per  cen- 
tum.    On  wool  unmanufactured,  the  value  whereof,  at  the  place  of  expor- 


w  * 

ON  THE  TARIFF.  97 

lation,  shall  exceed  eight  cents,  four  cents  per  pound,  and  twenty-six  per 
cent,  ad  valorem.  On  ready  made  clothing ;  all  milled  and  fulled  cloth, 
known  by  the  name  of  plain  kerseys,  or  Kendall  cottons,  of  which  wool 
shall  be  the  only  material ;  merino  shawls  made  of  wool,  and  on  all  other 
manufactures  of  wool,  or  of  which  wool  is  a  component  part,  subject,  by 
any  former  act,  to  a  duty  of  fifty  per  cent. — a  duty  of  forty  per  cent. ;  and 
on  flannels,  bookings,  and  baizes,  fourteen  cents  per  square  yard." 

Why  this  doubling  of  duties — so  much  by  the  pound,  and 
also  so  much  on  the  value?  Blankets,  cassimeres,  cloths — 
which  multitudes  of  laboring  men,  without  families  to  make 
what  is  called  homespun,  must  have — are  to  be  taxed  forty 
per  cent. ;  ready-made  clothes,  forty.  This  is  an  enormous 
protection — too  much,  by  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent. 

How  does  the  case  stand  with  regard  to  cotton  goods  ? 

"  Section  4.  All  manufactures  of  cotton,  or  of  which  cotton  is  a  compo- 
nent part,  thirty  per  centum  ad  valorem  ;  provided, 

"  1st.  That  all  plain  white  cottons,  not  exceeding  in  value  twenty  cents, 
shall  be  valued  at  twenty  cents  the  square  yard,  &c. 

"  2d.  And  if  dyed,  colored,  stained,  printed,  or  stamped,  not  exceeding 
in  value  twenty-five  cents,  shall  be  valued  at  twenty-five  cents. 

Without  giving  the  balance  of  this  section,  I  pause,  that  you 
may  see  and  understand  the  duty  on  plain  and  printed  cot- 
tons. In  New  York,  a  yard  of  plain  cotton  cloth  I  suppose  to 
cost  five  cents;  yet  it  must  be  considered  as  costing  twenty 
cents ;  or,  if  costing  ten  cents,  the  law  says  it  must  be  con- 
sidered as  having  cost  twenty  cents,  and  pay  a  duty  of  thirty  per 
cent.,  not  on  the  actual  cost,  but  on  the  presumed  cost.  So  of 
all  the  various-priced  calicoes — whether  costing  ten,  or  fifteen, 
or  twenty  cents — they  must  be  considered,  in  law,  as  hav- 
ing cost  twenty-five  cents,  and  pay  a  duty  at  that  rate— being 
a  duty  of  one  hundred,  two  hundred,  or,  in  some  cases,  of  three 
hundred  per  cent.,  or  more.  Why  this  enormous  duty,  but  for 
the  entire  exclusion  of  all  cotton  goods  whatsoever?  Under 
former  duties,  all  such  have  been  excluded,  except  about  six 
millions'  worth;  and,  under  this  rate  of  duty,  even  that  will 
be  swept  overboard,  and  the  whole  home  market  be  entirely 
surrendered  to  our  own  manufacturers.  AVhere,  then,  is  your 
revenue  ?  Not  a  dollar  in  the  treasury  from  this  formerly 
mighty  source  of  revenue.  Not  a  dollar!  And  yet  a  duty, 
ranging  from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  per  cent.,  has  been 
8 


98  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

paid  by  consumers.     Paid  to  whom?    Why,  to  the  manufac- 
turers. 

What  is  the  proposed  duty  "  on  brown  sugar,  and  sirup  of 
sugar-cane  in  casks  ?"  Two  cents  per  pound.  On  the  plant- 
ations of  Louisiana,  it  only  costs  from  four  to  six  cents.  In 
the  Havana  much  less.  How  much  brown  sugar  is  used  in  a 
State  ?  How  much  in  a  county  ?  How  much  in  any  given 
town?  How  much  in  each  family?  Sir,  an  estimate  might 
be  made  which  would  startle  this  country  as  to  the  amount  an- 
nually paid  by  the  people  for  the  peculiar  protection  of  a  few 
hundred  sugar  plantations  in  Louisiana.  Look,  now,  a  little 
into  the  proposed  duty  on  leather  manufactures : 


On  shoes  for  men 

- 

30  cts, 

,  per  pair. 

On  shoes  or  slippers  for  women 

,  of  silk 

25 

do. 

On  shoes  or  slippers  for  women, 

of  other 

material 

_ 

20 

do. 

On  men's  boots  and  bootees 

- 

$1  25 

do. 

On  women's  boots  and  bootees 

- 

50 

do. 

On  calf  skins 

- 

4  00  per 

•  dozen. 

On  morocco 

- 

3  00 

do. 

On  kid  skins 

- 

2  00 

do. 

On  sole  and  bend  leather 

- 

8  cts. 

per  lb. 

These  rates  may  not  seem  so  high  to  those  who  refer  to  the 
prices  of  such  things  after  th^ey  are  carried  to  the  interior  of 
the  country  for  sale ;  but  to  those  who  know  anything  of  the 
cheapness  of  the  first  cost  when  imported,  they  cannot  fail  to 
appear  enormous.  The  article  of  salt  is  to  be  taxed  eight 
cents  on  the  bushel.  This  I  take  from  the  prices  in  the  large 
cities,  (to  which  it  can  be  brought  as  ballast  to  our  vessels,)  to 
be  a  duty  equal  to  100  per  cent,  on  the  very  last  article  which 
should  be  taxed  one  cent.  The  majority  have  reported,  on  the 
notion  that  coffee  and  tea  are  necessaries,  and  not  luxuries, 
and  should  therefore  be  exempted  from  taxation.  I  shall  seek 
an  opportunity  to  procure  the  same  exemption  for  salt. 

I  know  how  this  argument  against  the  injustice  and  oppres- 
siveness of  such  high  rate  of  duties  has  been  usually  met. 
The  manufacturers  tell  us  that  high  duties  do  not  increase  the 
price  of  articles  to  the  consumer.  The  majority  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Manufactures  have  given  a  guarded  and  cautious 


ON  THE  TARIFF,  99 

approval  to  this  strange  and  inconsistent  doctrine.  Did  the 
committee  believe  that  the  sanction  of  their  names  could  give 
even  a  decent  plausiblity  to  a  position  which  the  very  presence 
of  the  manufacturers  sufficiently  refuted  ?  High  duties  not 
raise  the  price  to  the  consumer  or  purchaser !  Why,  then, 
have  all  these  manufacturers  abandoned  their  work-shops? 
Why  have  they  crowded  into  this  city?  Why  have  they 
swarmed  about  this  Capitol  like  the  locusts  of  Egypt?  Why 
all  this,  if  they  expect  no  advance  upon  their  manufactures  by 
the  high  duties  which  they  are  imploring  Congress  to  impose  ? 
Can  we  believe  that  they  are  spending  all  this  time  and  money 
on  some  patriotic  project;  which,  when  crowned  with  success, 
will  but  raise  up  (as  they  pretend)  a  more  formidable  competi- 
tion at  home  than  they  now  encounter  from  abroad  ?  Sir,  I 
know  not  which  most  to  despise — the  impudence  which  could 
fabricate,  or  the  credulity  which  could  be  deceived  by  such 
an  artifice. 

There  is  another  argument  resting  on  a  foundation  no  more 
solid  than  the  preceding  one.  It  is  this :  that  high  and  dis- 
tinctive protection  should  be  given,  at  least  to  those  articles 
which  are  essential  to  our  national  independence. 

Sir,  I  deny  that  there  are  any  such  articles.  Iron  for  the 
manufacture  of  arms,  and  coarse  woollen  cloths  and  blankets 
for  our  armies;  are  usually  mentioned  as  articles  of  this  de- 
scription. But,  sir,  who  ever  heard  that  war  with  any  one 
nation  would  put  a  stop  to  the  importation  of  such  things  from 
the  other  nations  who  produce  them  ?  In  a  war  with  England, 
for  illustration :  would  not  the  iron  of  Sweden  and  Russia  still 
find  its  way  in  increased  quantities  to  this  country  ? — both  in 
eager  competition  for  the  market  from  which  England  had  so 
recently  retired.  Nay,  more  :  if  all  the  nations  of  Europe 
were  united  in  the  war,  or  so  far  leagued  against  us  as  to  with- 
hold foreign  iron,  what  becomes  of  the  iron -establishments  of 
the  West  ? — of  Western  Pennsylvania,  Western  Virginia,  of 
East  and  Middle  Tennessee,  of  Missouri,  and  Kentucky? 
These  are  all  situated  so  far  in  the  interior  as  to  be  safe,  in  a 
good  degree,  against  importations ;  and  will  go  on  to  prosper- 
ity under  a  20  per  centum  protection,  or,  indeed,  no  protection 
at  all.     But  the  idea  of  a  war  at  the  same  time  against  all,  orT 


100  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

indeed,  more  than  one  or  two  foreign  countries,  is  too  improb- 
able to  be  admitted  into  this  argument.  Iron  is  not,  and  never 
can  be,  considered  as  contraband;  and,  therefore,  is  not  liable 
to  be  seized  and  captured  when  found  on  board  a  neutral  ves- 
sel transporting  it  to  this  country.  Hence  there  can  be  no 
pretence  for  considering  a  high  duty  on  that  article  to  be  called 
for,  on  any  pretence  of  its  being  essential  to  our  national  in- 
dependence. 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  coarse  woollens.  France 
and  Germany  would  be  prompt  to  supply  them  in  time  of  war 
with  Great  Britain.  The  whole  argnment  is  addressed  to  the 
ever-sensitive  patriotism  of  our  countrymen;  but  implies 
a  poor  compliment  to  their  sagacity  or  commercial  discern- 
ment. 

This  reference  to  foreign  countries,  particularly  to  Great 
Britain,  reminds  me  of  an  argument  which,  I  believe,  has  done 
more  to  make  converts  to  the  high-tariff  system  than  all  others 
beside — I  mean  that  argument  which  points  to  the  power  and 
glory  of  England  as  the  fruits  of  a  similar  system.  Ah,  sir, 
there  is  the  great  fallacy  of  the  argument.  It  has  deceived 
thousands.  It  points  to  the  power  and  glory  of  England — not 
to  her  shame.  It  points  to  her  splendid  palaces,  to  her  costly 
temples,  to  her  navies  and  armies,  and  to  her  dominion  over 
distant  and  populous  empires;  but  never,  never  does  it  unveil 
to  our  view  the  awful  mass  of  individual  poverty,  and  suffering, 
and  wo,  which  that  system  has  inflicted.  I  say  nothing  of  un- 
happy, oppressed,  and  ruined  Ireland !  Nothing  of  her  one 
hundred  millions  of  indigent  laborers  in  India  !  No,  I  allude 
to  England  herself — to  her  naked,  starving,  suffering  people — 
made  so  by  her  unequal,  unjust,  and  oppressive  taxation — tax- 
ation which  pampered  her  grandeur,  but  which  ruined  her  peo- 
ple— taxation,  which  her  present  minister,  backed  by  more  than 
one  hundred  of  a  majority  in  Parliament,  at  this  very  moment 
is  repealing.  I  cannot  but  refer,  on  this  point,  to  an  eloquent 
prophecy  of  one  of  my  former  colleagues,  [Mr.  Bell,]  nearly 
ten  years  ago.  "  The  day  will  come,  and  must  come,  when 
what  is  now  considered  the  glorious  fabric  of  British  Govern- 
ment and  British  policy  will  be  held  a  failure  in  reference  to 
the  true  end  of  all  governments.     The  day  will  come  when 


ON  THE  TARIFF.0 '  —  -  -.''/'.'.<     iTVl 

the  English  system  will  be  regarded  as  the  most  stupendous  and 
ingeniously  devised  system  of  fraud  and  oppression  ever  inven- 
ted by  the  craft  of  man — a  system  of  fraud  and  oppression 
distinguished  from  all  others  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  because 
carried  on  under  the  guise  of  freedom." 

Sir,  this  eloquent  prophecy  is  now  fulfilled.  The  day  has 
come  when  the  British  policy  is  acknowledged  to  be  a  failure 
by  her  proudest  statesmen.  The  wretchedness  and  ruin  it 
has  inflicted  on  her  starving  millions,  is  nowhere  better  described 
than  by  one  of  our  most  gifted  American  poets  :* 

"  Thy  masses  in  their  hovels  pine  ; 

They  curse  thee  while  they  toil. 
Thy  nobles,  of  illustrious  line, 

Like  vampyres,  suck  thy  soil. 
And  now,  proud  mistress  of  the  sea, 
The  meanest  wretch  gives  food  to  thee. 

"  A  Queen  upon  a  throne  of  gold, 

A  Parliament  of  drones, 
A  nation's  voice  that's  bought  and  sold, 

While  every  cottage  groans. 
An  army  o'er  the  wide  world  spread, 
To  gather  garments  from  the  dead." 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  go  no  further  into  the  arguments  by  which 
this  wretched  system,  either  here  or  in  England,  has  been  at- 
tempted to  be  supported.  I  mean  to  say  nothing  of  the  propor- 
tionate loss  or  gain  by  the  different  sections  of  the  Union;  and 
least  of  all  do  I  mean  to  warn  gentlemen  against  reviving  those 
fearful  questions  which  once  shook  that  Union  to  its  centre. 
All  that  I  propose  further  to  show  in  this  argument  is,  that  the 
rates  fixed  by  the  compromise,  which  I  estimate  at  25  per  cent., 
will  yield  a  sufficient  revenue  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  Gov- 
ernment— not  her  wants  when  running  a  career  of  wild  ex- 
travagance, but  when  prudently  and  economically  adminis- 
tered. To  show  the  amount  which  will  probably  be  realized, 
I  estimate  the  imports  for  several  years  to  come  to  average 
$100,000,000,  of  what  I  presume  to  be  dutiable  articles,  esti- 
mated by  foreign  value  ;  by  our  home  valuation,  $125,000,000. 
Twenty  per  centum  on  that  amount  would  yield  a  revenue  of 

*Dow. 


1 02  •  'CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECEES. 

$25,000,000  gross.  From  this  deduct  $1,000,000,  the  cost  of 
collection,  to  which  sum  I  think  it  entirely  practicable  to  reduce 
them  by  a  few  prudent  regulations — leaving  the  amount  of 
$24,000,000,  subject  only  to  the  drawbacks  allowed  by  law. 
This  system  of  drawbacks,  by  which  foreign  goods,  once 
brought  in  and  paying  duties  are  allowed  to  be  reshipped,  or 
exported,  and  the  duties  returned,  I  have  no  doubt  is  greatly 
defective,  and  ought  to  be  revised.  If  that  were  done,  I  have 
no  doubt  the  item  for  drawbacks  would  be  greatly  reduced. 
But  at  present  I  put  down  the  sum  of  two  and  a  half  millions 
for  drawbacks;  which,  being  deducted,  leaves  $21,500,000 — 
the  net  revenue  from  customs  for  the  first  year  after  the  com- 
promise act  shall  go  into  operation.  This  twenty-one  millions 
and  a  half  do  not  include  any  duties  on  tea  and  coffee.  I  esti- 
mate the  imports  to  be  one  hundred  millions,  exclusive  of  them; 
and  repose  with  entire  confidence  on  the  estimate.  The  ques- 
tion, then,  arises,  whether  this  revenue  of  twenty-one  millions 
and  a  half  will  be  sufficient  to  defray  the  necessary  and  proper 
expenses  of  the  Government.  I  do  not  hesitate  here  to  affirm 
that,  with  my  knowledge  of  public  affairs,  the  ordinary  and 
current  expenses  of  this  Government  can  and  ought  to  be 
brought  within  that  compass.  Nay,  I  believe  they  might  well 
be  reduced  to  twenty  millions,  and  still  be  conducted  on  a 
scale  creditable  and  worthy  of  a  great  and  gallant  nation. 
The  two  last  years  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration  were  ra- 
pidly approaching  that  amount.  The  Committee  on  Manu- 
factures were  careful  to  remind  us  that  the  average  ordinary 
expenditures  of  the  four  years  (Mr.  Van  Buren's)  were  nearly 
twenty-eight  millions ;  when  they  knew  that  the  large  expen- 
ditures of  1837  and  1838  could  find  no  parallel  necessity  in  the 
present  or  subsequent  years.  There  is  no  cause  for  similar 
expenditures.  The  Florida  war,  the  purchase  and  payment 
for  Indian  lands,  &c,  have  now  ceased,  and  had  begun  to  do 
so  in  1839,  and  still  more  in  1840.  Hence,  fairness  required 
them  only  to  have  taken  the  average  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  two 
last  years ;  which,  being  done,  would  have  shown  about  twenty- 
two  and  a  half,  instead  of  twenty-eight  millions.  But  such  a 
course  would  have  diminished  the  necessity  for  imposing  such 
duties  as  would  give  high  protection ;  and,  therefore,  it  is  not 


OX  THE  TARIFF.  103 

strange  that  the  majority  of  the  committee  preferred  the  for- 
mer mode  of  computation. 

But  if  twenty-one  and  a  half  millions  will  not  be  sufficient 
to  administer  the  Government  on  that  scale  which  those  who 
now  control  her  destinies  desire,  how  shall  more  than  that 
amount  be  raised?  You  may  increase  it,  1st.  By  a  tax  on 
tea  and  coffee  between  three  and  four  millions  ;  or,  2d.  You 
may  increased  about  the  same  amount  by  the  restoration  of 
the  land-fund  to  the  treasury.  Here,  then,  are  the  alterna- 
tives distinctly  presented  to  the  choice  of  the  majority,  who 
now  control  the  action  of  this  Government — either  to  bring 
down  the  G6vernment  from  the  twenty-six  millions,  or  more,  to 
which  you  have  carried  it  since  you  came  into  power,  to  twen- 
ty-one and  a  half  millions;  or  impose  your  tax  on  tea  and  coffee; 
or,  finally,  abandon  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands  among  the  States.  Sir,  these  alternatives  are  presented 
to  both  the  great  political  parties  of  this  country.  The  Dem- 
ocratic party,  with  but  few  exceptions,  will  not  hesitate  which 
of  them  to  choose.  They  stand  pledged,  by  their  principles, 
to  the  most  rigid  economy ;  they  have  vowed,  in  the  present 
emergency,  to  push  forward  the  most  vigorous  reductions ;  and, 
more  than  all,  they  stand  pledged  to  this  economy  by  all  the 
consecrated  provisions  of  the  compromise.  Yes,  sir,  they 
stand  here  this  day  under  the  solemn  conviction  that  twenty  or 
twenty-one  millions  will  be  enough  for  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  the  Government  for  years  to  come.  But  they  stand  here 
determined  that,  if  their  adversaries  will  have  more  than  this, 
it  shall  not  be  raised  off  of  the  necessaries  of  life — the  essen- 
tials of  human  subsistance.  Tea  and  coffee  are  now  articles 
of  that  description,  whatever  they  might  once  have  been.  So 
is  the  article  of  salt :  it  is  indispensable  to  man,  and  to  all 
the  animals  which  he  makes  tributary  to  his  convenience  or  his 
necessities.  But  all  these  essentials — tea,  coffee,  and  salt — 
we  know  cannot  be  exempted  from  taxation,  unless  our  ad- 
versaries restore  the  land  fund, — that  fund  which  they  ought 
not  to  give  away,  at  a  time  when  they  have  to  borrow  from  any- 
body, and  to  tax  everybody,  to  make  up  the  deficiency;  that 
fund  which  is  too  small  to  do  any  sensible  good  in  liquidating 
the  enormous  debts  of  the  States.     Yes,  sir ;  I  repeat  the  great 


104  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

Democratic  creed  in  the  present  posture  of  our  public  affairs. 
Give  back  the  land  money,  thereby  enabling  us  to  exempt  from 
taxation  the  three  great  necessaries  of  life ;  reduce  your  ex- 
penditures to  the  standard  of  strict  and  necessary  economy ; 
and  then  you  can  leave  unviolated  that  glorious  treaty  of  amity 
and  peace  which  was  so  solemnly  ratified  in  1833. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  assume  another  position,  for  which  I  be- 
speak the  serious  attention  of  this  committe.  Your  commerce 
is  now  in  the  most  depressed, not  to  say  paralyzed,  condition. 
It  can  bear  no  increased  burdens.  What  it  wants  is,  to  be 
rendered  more  free  and  unencumbered.  The  condition  of  the 
currency  in  most  other  countries,  and  the  general  embarrass- 
ment of  all,  would  seem  to  require  that  very  weight  should  be 
removed,  and  the  freest  interchange  of  commodities  should  be 
encouraged.  It  is  under  such  convictions  as  these  that  the 
wisest  statesmen  of  England  are  relaxing  their  restrictions, 
and  removing  their  prohibitions.  The  general  range  of  Eng- 
lish duties  is  now  being  reduced,  on  an  average,  nearly  one 
hundred  per  cent.  This  is  a  great  concession  to  free  and  un- 
restricted commerce  between  her  and  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth — a  concession  forced  upon  her  by  the  accumulated  ex- 
perience of  ages.  Shall  the  United  States,  at  such  a  moment 
as  this,  recede  from  the  great  principles  of  free  trade,  which 
she  proclaimed  to  the  States  and  to  the  world  in  1833?  She 
then  proclaimed  that  she  would  impose  no  other  fetters  on  her 
commerce  with  the  world  than  such  as  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  the  support  of  her  Government  when  economically 
administered.  This  bright  and  beneficent  example  has  been 
held  up  to  the  other  nations  for  imitation.  It  has  produced, 
and  is  producing,  wonderful  effects,  in  England  especially — that 
country  with  which  we  have  the  greatest  and  most  profitable 
intercourse.  At  such  a  moment  as  this,  I  repeat,  shall  we  put 
out  the  light  of  our  own  glorious  example  ?  No,  I  trust  we 
shall  not.  If  we  shall  but  steadily  adhere  to  it,  we  shall  soon 
reap  a  harvest  of  national  and  individual  prosperity,  which 
has  never  been  surpassed  :■— not  that  hollow  and  deceptive  pros- 
perity by  which  we  were  lately  so  much  elated ;  but  prosperity 
as  lasting  and  solid  as  those  great  principles  of  equality  and 
justice  by  which  it  will  be  acquired — prosperity  which,  in  two 


ON  THE  TARIFF.  105 

or  three  years,  at  most,  will  yield  you  an  income,  not  of  twenty, 
but  of  thirty  millions  at  least.  Yes,  sir;  it  is  only  of  the  first 
year  of  the  compromise  act  that  any  man  need  doubt  the  suffi- 
ciency of  your  revenue.  The  second,  third,  and  future  years, 
under  a  reanimated  and  reinvigorated  commerce,  will  give  you 
enough,  and  more  than  enough,  for  every  reasonable  demand 
on  a  plain,  economical,  and  republican  Government  like  ours. 
Beyond  that,  let  no  one  here  desire  to  go.  Let  no  American 
statesman  ever  consent  to  impose  heavy  and  unjust  taxation  on 
the  people,  in  order  that  this  Government  may  rival  the  luxury 
and  grandeur  of  the  Old  World. 


SPEECH, 

Against  receiving,  referring,   or  reporting  AboiiAion  Petitions', 
delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  10,  1844. 


The  unfinished  business  of  the  morning  hour  being  the  Report  of  the  Se- 
lect Committee  on  the  Rules,  and  Mr.  Dromgoole's  motion  to  recommit 
the  Report  to  the  Select  Committee. 

Which  motion  Mr.  Black,  of  Georgia,  had  moved  to  amend,  by  adding  In- 
structions to  the  Committee  to  report  the  Rule  commonly  known  as  the 
21st :  (i.  e.  which  excludes  Abolition  Petitions.) 

Mr.  A.  V.  Brown,  who  was  entitled  to  the  floor,  resumed  his 
remarks  of  a  preceding  day,  and  continued  them  during  the 
remainder  of  his  hour. 

The  Committee  on  Rules  had  reported  to  this  House,  (he 
said,)  and  in  that  report  they  had  furnished  no  rule  whatso- 
ever for  its  government  in  relation  to  abolition  petitions.  He 
had  already,  in  his  remarks  on  Saturday  last,  offered  every 
complaint  upon  this  subject  which  he  intended  to  offer.  But, 
having  reported  no  rules  at  all,  what  would  be  the  condition  of 
this  House  with  reference  to  this  matter  ?  There  were  three 
courses,  one  of  which  must  be  adopted.  The  first  was,  accord- 
ing to  one  motion  now  pending,  that  the  21st  rule  should  be 
reported  by  the  committee  ;  that  was,  in  other  words,  that  these 
abolition  petitions  should  not  be  received.  Another  course, 
provided  for  by  the  instructions  which  had  been  offered,  was? 
that  they  should  be  received,  but  laid  on  the  table  without  ref- 
erence, without  report,  without  debate,  or  any  other  action 
whatever.  The  third  proposition  was,  according  to  the  report 
of  the  committee,  that  these  petitions  should  not  only  be  re- 
ceived, but  be  referred,  reported,  and  acted  on,  like  the  ordi- 
nary business  of  legislation.     Now,  some  one  of  these  three 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  107 

modes  must  be  embraced  by  this  House,  and  be  decided  on  by 
the  question  now  pending  before  the  House. 

Mr.  B.  did  not  hesitate  to  be  in  favor  of  the  21st  rule.  He 
had  often  voted  for  that  rule ;  he  was  prepared  to  vote  for  it 
again ;  and  not  only  was  he  prepared  to  vote  for  it,  but  he  was 
ready  here  in  his  place  to  stand  up  in  vindication  of  that  rule 
against  the  arguments  by  which  it  had  been  assailed.  What 
had  they  heard  against  the  21st  rule  ?  Every  body  knew  what 
they  had  heard  from  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr. 
Adams]  and  the  gentleman  from  Ohio,  [Mr. Giddings.]  He  asked 
not  what  they  had  heard  from  them,  for  they  knew  it  well.  Nor 
did  he  ask  what  they  had  heard  against  that  rule  from  the  ra- 
ving fanatics  of  the  day.  He  would  rather  enquire  what 
they  had  heard  from  gentlemen  in  this  House  during  this  ses- 
sion. What  had  they  heard  from  gentlemen  here  in  their  pla- 
ces, and  especially  from  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  [Mr. 
Beardsley?]  Why,  they  had  been  told  that  the  21st  rule  was 
a  violation  of  the  great  constitutional  right  of  petition.  The 
gentleman  from  New  York  had  told  them  so ;  the  gentleman 
from  North  Carolina,  [Mr.  Clingman,]  coming  from  a  region 
greatly  interested  in  this  subject,  had  told  them  so.  Mr.  B.  de- 
nied it.  The  gentleman  said  that  it  not  only  violated  the 
great  constitutional  right  of  petition,  but  had  driven  the  peti- 
tioners out  of  this  Hall ;  that  it  had  driven  them  from  their  door 
with  scorn  and  contempt.  Mr.  B.  denied  it,  and  defied  gen- 
tlemen— (the  word  "  defy"  seemed  well  understood  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House,  but  its  use,  a  few  days  since,  had  not  seem- 
ed so  well  understood  on  this  side  of  the  House) — he  defied 
these  gentlemen,  one  and  all,  to  the  proof.  Where  was  the 
proof  upon  the  subject  ?  It  was  on  their  journal,  and  lying 
on  their  tables ;  and  he  defied  gentlemen  to  the  proof  upon 
this  subject.  They  might  take  what  petition  they  pleased; 
they  might  take  the  one  said  to  have  been  signed  by  fifty  thou- 
sand petitioners,  presented  some  sessions  since  by  the  gentle- 
man from  Massachusetts,  [Mr.  Adams,]  or  that  other  one  which 
had,  at  the  last  session,  been  brought  in  on  a  great  reel  and 
set  upon  the  table  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  for 
ornament  to  it ;  or  they  might  take  the  one  presented  by  him 
for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  or  that  one  presented  at  this 


108  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

session  of  Congress  from  citizens  of  New  York,  asking  to  be 
forever  separated  from  the  institution  of  slavery.  They  might 
take  any  one  or  all  of  these  petitions,  and  he  would  appeal  to 
the  record  to  settle  the  question,  whether  in  any  of  these  cases 
we  had  violated  the  great  constitutional  right  of  petition ; 
whether  we  had  turned  the  petitioners  out  of  this  Hall ;  wheth- 
er we  had  driven  them  with  scorn  and  contempt  from  our 
doors. 

What  had  been  the  proceedings  of  these  and  all  similar  ca- 
ses? What  had  been  the  practice  under  the  21st  rule  ?  The 
petitioners  in  any  and  in  all  those  cases  had  "  peaceably  as" 
sembled."  Had  the  21st  rule  prevented  that?  When  they 
had  assembled,  they  had  petitioned  this  House.  Did  the  21st 
rule  prevent  that  ?  They  had,  as  the  next  step,  sent  their  pe- 
titions to  their  chosen  and  selected  agent.  Did  we  prevent 
that  by  the  21st  rule  ?  We  did  not.  What  was  next?  That 
agent,  in  every  one  of  these  cases,  had  brought  their  petitions 
here  within  these  walls.  Did  the  21st  rule  prevent  that?  No. 
What  next  ?  The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  rose  in  hiS 
place  ;  all  eyes  were  fixed  upon  him,  and  all  ears  were  opened 
to  his  voice.  What  did  he  do?  He  presented  these  petitions : 
he  stated  distinctly  to  the  House  what  they  contained,  where 
the  petitioners  resided,  what  were  the  grievances  complained 
of,  how  they  reasoned  upon  the  subject,  and,  finally,  made 
known  to  this  House  what  was  the  redress  they  prayed  for. 
That  was  the  precise  process.  The  record  showed  the  fact. 
And  now  the  question  was,  whether  we  had  abridged  or  in  any- 
wise violated  the  great  right  of  petition  in  this  course  of  pro- 
ceeding? The  petitioners  had  been  heard.  By  themselves  ? 
No ;  for  they  had  not  come  here  to  be  heard ;  they  had  been 
heard  by  their  own  selected  agent,  who  came  within  these 
walls,  presented  their  petitions,  and  made  known  their  prayers. 
Would  it,  then,  be  pretended  that  we  had  violated  their  rights, 
or  treated  them  with  scorn  when  we  had  heard  their  own  agent 
speaking  for  them,  and  stating  what  grievances  they  prayed 
to  have  redressed? 

The  question  now  which  he  wished  to  put  to  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  and  others  who  seemed  disposed  to  object  to 
this  21st  rule  was,  whether,  in  fact,  under  that  rule,  we  had 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS'  109 

ever  violated  the  great  right  of  petition  ?  There  could  be  no 
difficulty  in  understanding  the  subject.  He  could  bring  illus- 
trations of  it  from  every  domestic  circle,  and  from  the  scenes  of 
every-day  life.  A  parent  was  bound  to  hear  the  complaint  of 
her  offspring;  but,  pausing  and  hearing  them,  she  might 
promptly  repel  them.  Although  the  child  might  say  that  the  pa- 
rent was  precipitate,  or  even  unkind,  yet  it  could  never  say  that 
the  parent  had  refused  to  hear  its  complaints.  Now,  here  was 
the  great  principle  of  petition.  Mr.  B.  admitted  the  right  in 
its  broadest  and  fullest  extent ;  and  he  admitted  further  the 
duty  of  this  House  to  hear  these  petitioners.  After  these  pe- 
titioners were  heard,  (as  they  did  hear  them  under  this  21st 
rule,)  the  right  of  the  people  was  perfect.  The  duty  of  the 
House  then  began,  and  that  duty  was  to  dispose  of  the  peti- 
tions promptly  or  slowly,  as  they  deemed  proper. 

It  was  a  great  issue,  not  only  elsewhere  but  here,  whether 
the  argument  was  true,  so  often  used  by  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio  and  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  and  now  sustain- 
ed by  the  gentleman  from  New  York  and  the  gentleman  from 
North  Carolina,  who  had  come  forward  and  endorsed  the  argu- 
ments used  in  former  times  upon  this  subject,  whether  by  this 
21st  rule  the  great  constitutional  right  of  petition  was  violated, 
as  they  affirmed  it  was.  Mr.  B.  denied  that  this  right  was  vio- 
lated, and  he  appealed  to  the  record,  relying  upon  the  known 
practice  of  the  House,  (for  what  he  had  told  them  with  regard 
to  the  practice  upon  these  petitions  was  known  to  be  true  by 
every  member  of  the  House.) 

But  by  what  sort  of  an  argument  was  it  that  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  maintained  that  the  21st  rule  ought  to  be 
abandoned  ?  The  gentleman  told  them  that  this  was  the  very 
best  way  in  the  world  to  put  down  abolition.  His  great  object 
was  to  put  down  abolition  ;  and  the  best  way  to  do  so,  he  told 
them,  was  to  receive,  to  refer,  and  to  report  upon  these  peti- 
tions. The  gentleman  might  as  well  tell  him  that  the  best 
way  to  save  a  city  was  to  surrender  its  fortifications ;  or  that 
the  best  way  to  repel  an  invasion  was  to  give  up  all  the  moun- 
tain passes  and  strongholds  where  the  enemy  might  be  most 
readily  and  effectually  met  and  overcome.  Put  down  the 
spirit  of  abolitionists,  defeat  their  object  by  doing  what  ?     By 


110  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

granting  them  four  out  of  five  of  the  very  things  they  desired. 
What  did  they  ask  for  ?  To  have  their  petitions  received.  Well, 
said  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  "  Oh,  yes,  let  us  receive 
them ;  that  is  the  way  to  put  them  down."  What  was  the 
next  thing  they  asked  for?  To  have  their  petitions  referred 
to  the  committees  of  the  House.  The  gentlemen  from  New 
York  and  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina  also  said,"  Oh, 
yes,  let  us  put  down  these  abolitionists  by  sending  their  peti- 
tions to  a  committee  to  be  examined  and  reported  upon." 
They  asked  more — that  they  should  debate  these  petitions. 
And  gentlemen  professing  to  be  opposed  to  abolition  (and  Mr. 
B.  doubted  not  sincerely  professing)  still  tried  to  persuade  the 
House  that  the  best  way  was  to  yield  every  inch  of  ground,  and 
refuse  nothing  but  the  solitary  principle  of  relief  for  which  they 
finally  prayed.  Now,  it  was  impossible  for  Mr.  B.,  as  a  South- 
ern man,  or  as  a  statesman  who  had  watched  the  progress  of 
this  abolition  question,  to  believe  that  this  could  be  safely 
done. 

[M]\Beardsley  (Mr.  Brown  yielding  for  explanation)  inquired  if  the 
gentleman  said  that  he  (Mr.  Beardsley)  advised  debate  upon  the  subject. 
Surely  he  had  never  taken  this  position.  His  course  was  well  known  :  it 
was  in  favor  of  taking  the  final  vote  upon  the  whole  matter ;  and  gentle- 
men well  knew  what  that  would  be.] 

Mr.  Brown  resumed.  But  did  not  the  gentlemaiv  perceive 
that  if  they  referred  these  petitions  they  must  report  upon  them; 
and  if  they  reported,  they  must  debate  the  subject  ?  If  they 
began,  on  what  principle  would  they  avoid  carrying  out  the 
regular  process,  involving  reference,  report,  and  debate?  But 
why  would  gentlemen  agree  to  refer  these  petitions  at  all  ? 
They  all  said  they  were  as  much  opposed  to  abolition  as  any 
one,  and  yet  they  proposed  to  refer  the  petitions  to  a  commit- 
tee which  should  collect  facts,  examine  laws,  and  consider  the 
subject,  and  see  if  some  plan  could  not  be  devised  for  carrying 
out  the  views  of  the  petitioners.  If  this  was  not  the  object, 
they  could  have  no  object  at  all.  Why,  then,  would  they  re- 
fer, why  report  upon,  why  debate  these  petitions,  if  they  did 
not  mean  finally  to  grant  their  prayer  ? 

[Mr.  Clingman  (Mr.  B.  yielding  for  explanation)  said  the  gentleman 
had  misunderstood  him  (Mr.  C.)  if  he  had  understood  him  as  being  in  favor 
of  debating  these  petitions.    He  was  averse  to  it ;  he  was  willing  to  see 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  Ill 

this  rule  debated,  and  to  see  the  report  of  a  committee  debated.  But  he 
thought  it  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  House  to  debate  any  petition.  They 
had  enough  to  do  to  debate  bills,  resolutions  and  reports  from  committees. 
After  reference,  if  the  committee  reported  for  or  against  the  prayer  if  any  gen- 
tleman chose  he  might  then  with  propriety  discuss  the  matter.] 

Mr.  Brown  continued.  He  was  glad  the  gentleman  from 
North  Carolina  had  had  an  opportunity  for  explanation.  But 
did  not  the  gentleman  see  that  the  only  way  to  get  along  with 
this  subject  with  safety  to  the  South,  with  safety  to  the  gentle- 
man's own  State,  with  safety  to  the  portions  of  North  Caro- 
lina bordering  on  the  rivers  of  that  State  where  the  heaviest 
slave  population  was  to  be  found,  was  not  to  go  beyond  the 
great  question  of  the  right  of  petition,  but  there  to  stop  ?  to 
take  no  jurisdiction,  by  reference,  by  report,  or  debate  over  the 
subject?  There  was  comparatively  safe  ground  ;  and  from  the 
explanation  of  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina,  Mr.  B.  in- 
dulged strongly  the  hope  that  when  they  came  finally  to  act 
upon  the  subject,  he  [Mr.  C]  would  not  be  found  going  beyond 
that.  Mr.  B.  admitted,  notwithstanding  their  rule  was  so  plain, 
and  notwithstanding  their  practice  under  it  had  been  so  plain, 
that  there  might  be  extensive  misrepresentations  and  miscon- 
structions of  the  rule  of  the  country.  Now,  he  asked  of  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  and  of  the  gentleman  from  North 
Carolina,  why  they  did  not  stop  at  that  point  ?  Why  they  did 
not  propose  in  the  report  of  this  committee  to  clear  up,  to  eluci- 
date this  subject,  and  make  it  manifest  in  its  true  light  to  all 
the  people  of  the  country,  and  to  remove  all  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties, by  going  on  according  to  their  views  to  perfect  the 
great  right  of  petition?  What  was  requisite  for  that?  Why, 
simply  to  declare  that  the  petitions  should  be  received;  that 
would  perfect  the  great  right  of  petition  in  a  manner  safe  to 
the  North,  and  which  would  be  safe  to  the  South  in  a  great 
degree,  and  it  would  have  saved  the  Democracy  of  the  North 
from  the  suspicion  of  their  enemies  of  a  disposition  to  form  al- 
liances with,  or  to  propitiate  at  least,  the  fell  spirit  of  ablition- 
ism.  Why  did  not  the  gentlemen  pause  at  the  point  of  recep- 
tion, and  go  no  farther,  if  their  object  was  to  clear  up  the  mis- 
conception on  the  public  mind  ? 

It  might  seem  strange  to  the  gentleman  to  whom  Mr.  B.  had 


112  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

referred — to  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  to  the  gentleman 
from  North  Carolina,  as  well  as  others — that  he  had  laid  so 
much  stress  upon  not  referring,  not  reporting,  and  not  debating 
these  petitions.  Why,  it  was  evident,  if  these  petitions  were 
received  and  laid  upon  the  Speaker's  table,  that  there,  under 
the  rule,  they  would  lie  forever.  No  great  harm  or  mischief 
perhaps  would  grow  out  of  this  practice.  But  the  very  moment 
they  referred  them  to  a  committee,  that  moment  they  took  ju- 
risdiction over  them,  and  jurisdiction  in  such  away  as  to  alarm 
the  whole  country.  He  was  opposed  to  an  action  which  might 
result  in  such  consequences. 

The  argument  had  been  used,  that  if  they  would  receive, 
refer,  and  report  upon  these  petitions,  as  in  ordinary  cases, 
this  would  allay  the  excitement  which  now  exists  on  this  sub- 
ject. Mr.  B.  had  one  conclusive  answer,  one  irresistable  ar- 
gument, in  his  humble  judgment,  against  this  proposition:  They 
had  already  tried  it.  Many  gentlemen  were  here  discussing 
this  question,  as  though  the  experiment  had  never  been  made, 
of  receiving  these  petitions,  and  referring  and  reporting  upon 
them.  Why,  the  very  speech  the  gentleman  from  New  York 
had  made,  if  not  word  for  word,  yet  argument  for  argument, 
had  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  celebrated  Pinckney  resolution. 
Under  this  they  had  been  received,  referred,  and  reported  on  ; 
a  dignified,  manly,  respectful  report  had  been  made,  and  the 
decision  of  this  House  had  been  had  upon  the  question.  Now, 
had  that  allayed  excitement?  Had  that  had  the  tendency  to 
put  down  the  spirit  of  abolition  ?  So  far  from  it,  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts,  at  the  next  session,  had  come  within  this 
Hall  with  fifty  thousand  petitioners  at  his  heels.  So  far  from 
it,  the  very  moment  they  had  adopted  the  Pinckney  resolution, 
and  determined  to  receive,  refer,  and  report  upon  these  peti- 
tions as  they  did  upon  all  others,  the  abolitionists  all  over  the 
country  said :  "  Now  is  the  time  to  make  your  effort ;  send 
men  to  Congress  able  to  be  the  speakers  of  that  body — able 
to  serve  upon  the  committee,  able  to  speak  and  vindicate  the 
abolition  question.  The  doors  of  Congress  are  wide  open ; 
they  may  not  long  remain  so.  Therefore,  now  is  the  time, 
and  put  all  your  machinery  in  motion  to  effect  your  object." 
And  abolition  had  grown  and  flourished,  and  they  were  now 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  113 

reaping  a  rich  harvest  from  the  seeds  which  had  then  been 
sown  under  the  Pinckney  resolution. 

[Mr.  Adams  (Mr.  B.  yielding  the  floor)  said  he  wished  simply  to  ask 
the  gentleman  whether  the  report  of  Mr.  Pinckney  was  in  favor  of  receiv- 
ing these  petitions !  That  was  what  he  had  understood  the  gentleman  to 
assert. 

Mr.  Brown.     Certainly  it  was  not  in  favor  of  granting  their  prayer. 

Mr.  Adams  said  it  was  not  in  favor  of  receiving  the  petitions,  and  that 
fact  had  been  the  occasion  of  the  multitude  of  petitions  which  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  next  Legislature.  The  refusal  of  the  House,  under  that  very 
resolution,  to  receive  these  petitions,  had  been  the  reason  for  the  multidtue 
of  them  that  had  been  offered  since  that  time.] 

Mr.  Brown  continued.  With  regard  to  the  Pinckney  reso^ 
lution,  it  had  been  a  long  time  since  Mr.  B.  had  examined  it, 
but  it  had  always  been  pointed  to  as  being  in  a  degree  liberal, 
and  that  very  resolution  the  abolitionists  themselves  would 
now  prefer,  a  thousand  times  prefer,  to  the  21st  rule.  His  im* 
pression  was  that  it  did  receive  these  petitions,  but  laid  them 
on  the  table.  ^ 

Mr.  B.  relied,  then,  on  the  clear,  manifest  experience  of 
this  House  for  demonstration  that,  if  they  received  these  peti- 
tions— if  they  referred  and  reported  upon  them — if  they  gave, 
in  other  words,  a  respectful  response  to  these  petitioners,  he 
relied  upon  the  practice  of  the  House  and  the  experience  of 
the  country  that  such  results  as  gentlemen  anticipated  would 
not  grow  out  of  this  course  of  proceeding.  Why  did  gentle- 
men insist  so  strongly  upon  referring  these  petitions  ?  Why 
would  they  refer  them?  Did  they  mean  to  grant  their  prayer  ? 
No.  Why  then  did  they  profess  that  they  were  about  to  do  so, 
by  referring  the  petitions  to  a  committee  ?  Was  it  done  in  hy- 
pocrisy ?  He  did  not  charge  it,  and  he  would  not  think  it. 
Why,  then  would  they  refer  them  ?  Was  it  in  order  to  mani- 
fest respect  to  the  petitioners  ?  If  that  were  the  reason,  Mr. 
B.  would  not  show  it,  for  he  did  not  feel  it. 

Mr.  B.  wished  now  to  state  some  reasons  why  he  was  so 
much  opposed  to  the  reference  of  and  the  report  upon  these 
petitions.  The  first  was,  that  if  at  every  session  of  Congress 
their  title  to  their  property  was  to  be  brought  in  question  upon 
this  floor,  it  must  of  necessity  diminish,  if  not  destroy  the  value 
of  that  property.  He  wanted  gentlemen  to  consider  this :  that 
9 


114  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

every  year,  session  after  session,  if  they  had  no  rule  upon  this 
subject,  their  title  to  this  description  of  property  (which  title 
they  admitted,  and  which  he  believed  everybody  was  prepared 
to  admit,  except  abolitionists)  would  annually  be  brought  into 
question  in  this  Hall.  Would  not  this  finally  destroy  its  value? 
Suppose  a  member  of  this  House  to  have  a  good  and  indefea- 
sible title  to  a  tract  of  land,  but  yet  to  be  sued  for  it  every 
year,  and  that  he  was  able  to  effect  recovery  in  every  litiga- 
tion:  would  it  not  be  very  natural  for  him  finally  to  be  compel- 
led to  say,  that  although  he  knew  there  was  no  outstanding 
title,  yet,  if  he  was  to  be  sued  every  year  for  it,  it  would  be  bet- 
ter to  give  it  up  to  the  man  who  asked  for  it,  although  he  knew 
that  he  had  no  title  to  it  ?  If  they  had  the  practice  of  refer- 
ring these  petitions  at  every  session  of  Congress,  the  question 
would  be,4'  How  does  that  committee  stand?"  How  many  of 
its  members  are  favorable  to  abolition,  and  how  many  opposed 
to  it  ?  How  many  will  stay  here  all  the  time  ?  Will  not  some 
go  home,  and,  by  an  accidental  meeting  of  the  committee,  may 
there  not  be  found  a  majority  favorable  to  the  purpose  of  abo- 
lition ?"  The  veriest  acci&eHJt  in  the  world  might  extract  from 
the  committee  a  report  favorable  to  the  petitioners.  Alarm 
and  excitement  under  such  a  state  of  things  would  pervade 
the  whole  South ;  our  whole  Southern  population  would  be 
tossed  to  and  fro,  like  the  waves  of  the  ocean,  at  every  vibra- 
tion and  change  of  parties  upon  this  floor,.  That  was  one  rea- 
son why  Mr.  B.  would  not  begin  to  take  jurisdiction  of  this 
question,  by  reference  to  a  committee. 

But  there  was  another  reason  which  actuated  Mr.  B,  in  his 
course  upon  this  subject.  Gentlemen  surely  did  not  know 
what  was  going  on  in  the  South.  In  the  spirit  of  liberality, 
and  just  humanity  too,  they  had  taught  manjj  of  their  slaves 
to  read ;  they  had  relaxed  the  rigors  of  their  fetters ;  and  with 
their  children  they  had  learned  to  read,  and  some  to  write. 
Did  they  not  see  in  a  moment  the  danger,  under  this  state  o.f 
things,  of  the  debates  here  annually — not  now  and  then,  once 
in  four  or  five  years,  but  annually — being  thrown  out  upon  our 
slave  population  ?  The  abolitionists  had  already  sent  missives 
to  that  region  of  country.  They  had  first  addressed  the  ow- 
ners of  slaves,  and  had  afterwards  sent  their  addresses  to  the 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  115 

slaves  themselves.  They  were  there  now,  and  were  read  by 
their  slaves  by  the  flickering  lamp  at  midnight;  and  so  their 
reports  and  debates,  if  they  were  to  be  made  here  annually, 
would  be  read  by  them  in  like  manner. 

But  in  these  addresses,  and  particularly  in  the  addresses  of 
the  abolitionists  themselves,  what  had  their  slaves  been  told  ? 
They  had  told  them  to  shed  no  blood,  but  that  they  might  steal 
their  masters'  property  of  any  description  necessary  to  expe- 
dite their  flight  to  the  free  States ;  and  they  were  assured  that 
their  friends  were  standing  with  open  arms  ready  to  receive 
them,  and  conduct  them  to  Canada.  That  was  what  they 
were  reading  now,  and  no  man  could  tell  what  the  result  of  that 
reading  would  be,  much  less  could  they  tell  what  dreadful  re- 
sults might  ensue  when  they  read  the  celebrated  Pittsburg  let- 
ter. In  this  letter  a  new  idea  was  brought  forward  and  pre- 
sented to  their  view.  The  opinion  was  advanced  in  it  that 
emancipation  would  come ;  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  would 
be  effected  in  some  way  or  other — whether  peaceably,  or  by 
blood,  it  was  not  known ;  but,  in  whatever  way  it  should  come, 
the  writer  of  that  letter  was  ir*  favor  of  it.  When  that  should 
be  read  by  their  slaves,  no  mortal  man  could  tell  what  the  con- 
sequences would  be.  Where  had  the  idea  of  blood  been  taken 
from?  (asked  Mr.  B.)  The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  had 
snatched  it  from  the  incendiary  fires  and  massacres  of  St.  Do- 
mingo. There  they  shed  the  blood  of  the  sleeping  infant,  and 
piercing  its  yet  warm  and  writhing  body  with  a  stake,  marched 
under  it  as  their  banner  with  the  swords  in  one  hand,  and>  the 
fagot  in  the  other.  Who  could  tell,  when  these  things  were 
read  at  midnight  by  the  very  slaves  whom  they  had  favored 
and  taught  to  read  for  another  and  better  purpose,  what  would 
be  the  result  ?  No  man  could  predict.  Hence  it  was  that 
they  of  the  South  stood  here  asking  their  real  friends  of  the 
North  never — if  they  could  not  go  with  them  for  the  exclusion 
of  these  petitions ;  if  they  thought  that  was  too  strong  a  pro- 
position, and  insisted  upon  their  reception — never  to  go  be<- 
yond  the  reception,  or  make  these  petitions  the  subject  of  ref- 
erence, re  port,  and  debate  in  this  Hall.  Our  safety  (said  Mr. 
B.)  depends  upon  it;  the  safety  of  t\e  bright  and  glorious 
Union  depends  upon  it.     And  hewished  to  say  to  gentlemen 


116  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

of  the  North,  "  You  understand  what  is  the  intimation  of  your 
people  upon  the  subject;  you  know  better  how  this  21st  rule 
has  been  mystified,  if  not  misrepresented.  If  your  safety  de- 
pends upon  the  relaxation  or  explanation  of  the  rule,  why,  give 
it;  but  when  you  have  done  that,  be  satisfied.  When  you  have 
secured  the  great  constitutional  principle  of  petition,  there 
stop.  There  your  principles  stop.  Beyond  that  you  are  not 
bound  to  go ;  beyond  that  you  ought  not  to  go ;  beyond  that  you 
cannot  go,  in  my  humble  judgment,  consistently  with  the  great 
compromise  contained  in  the  Constitution." 

Now,  this  was  the  position  of  Southern  gentlemen  here. 
They  were  of  course  prepared  to  vote  the  strongest  measure; 
they  were  prepared  to  exclude  these  petitions.  They  did  vote 
to  exclude  them.  The  question  was,  whether  this  House  had 
any  constitutional  jurisdiction  over  the  subject.  Everybody 
knew  they  had  not.  But  they  of  the  South — many  of  them — 
thought  the  reception  of  these  petitions  was  taking  the  first 
step  in  the  assumption  of  jurisdiction.  I  (said  Mr.  B.)  go  for 
the  strongest  rule  ;  but  if  that  is  too  strong  either  for  your 
judgment,  or  for  that  of  the  people  you  represent,  then  give 
us  another  rule  which  will  not  violate  the  opinion  of  your  con- 
stituents, but  which  will  ensure  comparative  safety  and  repose 
to  the  South.  Southern  gentlemen  could  not  so  much  object 
to  that.  If  they  could  not  get  the  strongest  and  best  rule, 
then  they  had  a  right  to  the  next  strongest  and  next  best  rule. 
That  rule  might  admit  of  the  clear  reception  of  petitions,  but 
not  of  their  reference  to  a  committee,  or  of  report,  or  debate 
upon  them,  as  would  occur  if  there  were  to  be  no  rule  upon 
the  subject;  not  occasionally,  once  in  five  or  six  years,  but 
every  year.  Session  after  session  they  would  come  up  to  be 
debated  here,  which,  in  his  humble  judgment,  could  not  be  done 
consistently  with  the  great  principles  of  the  Constitution ;  and 
let  him  again  ask  gentlemen,  who  did  not  mean  finally  ever  to 
give  the  redress  asked  for  by  the  petitioners,  why  they  should 
be  debated,  or  reported  on,  or  referred  ?  To  do  so  would  be 
but  an  idle  mockery,  or  a  hypocritical  pretension. 

Mr.  B.  said,  so  far  he  had  spoken  to  those  who  were  sensi- 
tive on  the  right  of  petition.  He  had  attempted  to  show  that 
this  right  was  not  violated  in  the  slightest  degree  by  the  21st 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  117 

rule.  He  had  often  sustained  this  opinion  by  his  votes,  and 
he  meant  now  and  forever  so  to  sustain  it.  He  hoped  that  no 
man,  either  in  the  South  or  in  the  North,  who  entertained  the 
same  opinion,  would  falter  or  hesitate  one  moment  on  the  sub- 
ject. But  he  could  not  be  insensible  to  what  was  passing 
around  him.  He  saw,  or  feared  he  saw,  in  the  already  recor- 
ded votes  of  this  House,  in  the  report  now  under  discussion,  in 
the  speeches  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York,  [Mr.  Beards- 
ley,]  and  in  that  of  the  gentleman  from  North  Carolina  [Mr. 
Clingm-an,]  and,  more  than  all,  in  the  exulting  shout  of  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  [Mr.  Adams,]  that  this  21st 
rule  was  doomed  to  fall.  Hence  it  was,  that  he  had  made  an 
appeal,  not  to  him  of  Massachusetts,  not  to  him  of  Ohio ;  but 
to  all  those  who  professed  only  to  be  desirous  of  preserving  the 
right  of  petition,  to  go  that  far,  but  no  farther.  All  beyond 
that,  was  concession  to  the  fell  spirit  of  Abolition,  and  no  man 
could  be  held  guiltless  who  pandered  to  its  wickedness  and  its 
folly.  The  South  will  hold  no  man  guiltless  who  shall  go  one 
inch  beyond  the  right  of  petition.  He  must  answer  for  every 
fire  that  may  be  kindled,  and  for  every  drop  of  blood  that  may 
be  shed.  Yes,  sir,  I  will  say  to  the  gentleman  from  New 
York,  and  from  North  Carolina,  if  this  House  shall  go  one  inch 
beyond  that,  they  may  have  to  stand  answerable  for  the  shat- 
tered and  broken  fragments  of  the  Union  itself.  Going  be- 
yond that,  the  highest  hopes  and  the  blackest  designs  of  aboli- 
tion may  find  at  last  their  accomplishment — no,  (said  Mr.  B.,) 
I  am  wrong  in  that.  These  designs,  whatever  else  may  hap- 
pen, can  never  be  accomplished  in  any  of  the  ways  now  pro- 
posed. All  the  efforts  now  making  by  them  only  rivet  the 
chain  of  slavery  more  securely,  or  make  their  weight  more  gal- 
ling and  oppressive.  In  God's  own  time,  and  by  means  of  his 
selection,  these  chains  may  fall,  and  the  bondsman  go  free. 
Left  to  these  means  unprecipitated  by  the  officiousness  of  fa 
naticism,  the  enlightened  humanity  of  the  age,  the  diffusion  of 
religious  knowledge,  and  even  the  better  estimated  self-interest 
of  the  master,  will  soften  the  rigors  of  bondage,  and  render  the 
slave,  as  he  now  is  in  many  cases,  but  little  inferior,  in  the 
great  elements  of  happiness,  to  the  master  he  serves.  Give 
slavery  but  scope  and  compass — let  it  dilate  itself  over  ample 


1 1 8  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECEES. 

space,  and  it  loses  much  of  that  oppression  which  even  a  mor- 
bid humanity  could  deplore.     In  much  of  Tennessee,  of  Ken- 
tucky, of  North  Carolina,  and  other  States  of  the  South,  where 
slavery  is  not  too  much  condensed,  I  hesitate  not  to  say  that,  in 
point  of  care  and  anxiety — in  point  of  abundance  of  food  and 
of  raiment — of  healthful  but  humble  habitation — the  slave  is 
but  little  distinguished  from  the  master.      They  labor  in  the 
same  fields,  partake  of  the  same  food,  repose  during  the  same 
period,  and  often  participate  in  the  same  amusements.      All 
ancient  barbarity  of  punishment  has  disappeared,  and  the 
criminal  code  of  the  master  has  kept  pace  with  the  amelora- 
tion  of  the  criminal  code  of  all  civilized  nations.     This  cheer- 
ing picture,  I  admit,  assumes  a  darker  coloring  as  you  approach 
the  more  densely  populated  regions  of  the  South.     But  even 
there  hundreds  and  thousands  of  our  slaves,  were  they  to  visit, 
as  some  of  them  have  done,  the  free  States  in  the  North,  and 
scan  with  an  eye  of  intelligence  the  condition  of  their  colored 
brethren,  would  turn  revolting  from  the  spectacle,   and  cling 
with  gratitude  and  joy  to  the  protective  care  and  enlightened 
humanity  of  their  masters.     Mr.  B.  would  repeat  his  solemn 
convictions,    that  the  means  now  used  by  abolitionists  could 
never  bring  any  thing  to  the  colored  man  of  the  South  but  an 
increase  of  discontent  with  his  present  condition.      That  dis- 
content may  bring  to  him  death  and  destruction.     It  may  lead 
him  to  revolt  against  his  master.    ^Without  arms,  without  am- 
munition, without  discipline,  without  numbers  compared  with 
the  whites,  what  could  he  do?      He  is  hung  up  on  the  gibbet, 
or  shot  down  by  his  pursuers  in  the  fields  which  he  once  content- 
edly cultivated,  or  in  the  forest  where  so  often  he  pursued  his 
game,  the  more  joyous  companion  of  his  master.     If  the  in- 
judicious and  really   inhuman  projects   of  the   abolitionists 
were  to  induce  our  slaves  to  runaway  from  the  South,  and  seek 
the  aid  of  their  supposed  friends  in  the  North,  what  would  be 
their  condition?   Would  the  abolitionists  prove  to  be  their  friends 
then  ?     No.     They  would  be  refused  a  settlement  among  them. 
They  would  be  forced  away  to  the  cold  and  frozen  regions  of 
Canada,  to  perish  or  to  starve ;  or  be  driven  away  like  beast3 
among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  West,  to  be  enslaved  by  them, 
or  butchered  by  the  Camanche  or  other  savage  nations  of  the 


ON  ABOLITION  PETITIONS.  119 

forest.  Sir,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  the  precise  manner  of  their 
expulsion  and  destruction ;  but  expelled  and  destroyed  they 
would  be,  whilst  true  religion  and  humanity  would  long  weep 
over  their  unhappy  destiny.  Sir,  they  are  comparatively  happy 
now ;  let  them  alone.  They  are  fed  well,  they  are  clothed  well, 
they  are  housed  well;  they  do  not  labor  more  or  harder  than  the 
poor  of  our  own  color,  whose  necessities  require  that  they  should 
labor  for  their  subsistence.  Let  them  alone.  They  are  ours  by 
*  purchase.  You  of  the  North  (some  of  you)  first  kidnapped  them, 
and  then  brought  and  sold  them  to  us.  Were  we  to  liberate 
them  to-morrow,  you  would  not  receive  them.  You  would  treat 
them  with  a  thousand-fold  more  barbarity  than  ever  they  were 
treated  by  us.  Then  let  them  alone;  your  benevolence,  false 
and  often  hypocritical  as  it  is,  would  but  kill  and  destroy  them. 
Then  let  them  alone.  God  in  his  love,  and  Religion  in  her  ho- 
liness, will  do  more  and  better  for  them  than  you  ever  can  or 
will  do.  But  I  forget  (said  Mr.  B.)  that  I  speak  to  a  bigotry 
that  has  no  heart,  and  to  a  fanaticism  that  has  no  ears.  I  turn, 
therefore,  from  them  to  the  men  and  patriots  who  belong  to 
these  Halls — the  successors  of  those  illustrious  men  who  reared 
this  temple,  and  consecrated  it  forever  to  Union  and  the  Con- 
stitution. If  thy  people  shall  lift  up  their  eyes  to  this  temple, 
and  pray  thee  for  what  it  is  lawful  to  grant  them  under  that 
Constitution,  hear  thou  and  answer  them.  But  if  they  ask  thee 
for  what  will  rend  that  Constitution,  and  sunder  forever  that 
bright  and  glorious  Union,  be  thou  as  deaf  and  insensible  as 
the  marble  pillars  which  surround  you. 


SPEECH, 

On  the  Right  of  the  Members  elected  by  general  ticket  to  their 
Seats ;  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February 
9,  1844, 


The  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Elections,  relative  to  the  right  of  certain 
Members  to  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  being  under 
consideration  : 

Mr.  A.  V.  Brown  addressed  the  House  as  follows — 
Mr.  Speaker  :  There  is  now  lying  on  your  table  a  bill  which 
I  had  the  honor  to  introduce  at  an  early  period  of  the  session, 
proposing  a  repeal  of  that  section  of  the  apportionment  act 
which  is  the  exciting  topic  of  this  debate.  Whilst  the  report 
of  the  committee  maintains  that  section  to  be  void  and  of  no 
effect,  that  bill  declares  that  it  shall  be  stricken  at  once  from 
your  statute-book.  The  subjects  are  identical,  the  arguments 
on  them  nearly  the  same ;  and,  at  the  close  of  this  debate,  I 
shall  move  the  bill  on  its  passage,  that  both  subjects  (as  nearly 
as  possible,)  may  be  disposed  of  at  the  same  time.  Having 
introduced  that  bill,  and  being  also  a  member  of  the  commit- 
tee by  which  this  report  was  made,  I  stand  in  such  responsible 
connection  with  both,  that  I  trust  I  shall  be  excused  by  the 
House  for  participating  in  this  debate. 

This,  however,  I  would  not  think  of  doing,  did  I  entertain 
the  opinions  which  have  just  been  expressed  by  the  gentleman 
from  Georgia,  [Mr.  Stephens.]  If  I  were  deeply  and  thorough- 
ly convinced,  as  he  says  he  is,  that  I  was  not  duly  and  constitu- 
tionally elected  to  this  House,  I  would  neither  speak  in  it,  nor 
act  in  it.  I  would  leave  it  at  once,  whatever  the  opinion  of 
others  might  be.  So  I  would  do  in  every  other  similar  case. 
Were  I  unlawfully  appointed  the  Judge  of  a  court,  or  if  the 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  121 

court  had  been  unconstitutionally  created,  I  would  neither 
clothe  myself  with  its  ermine,  nor  sit  on  its  woolsack. 

The  second  section  of  the  apportionment  act  provides,  "that 
where  a  State  is  entitled  to  more  than  one  Repesentative,  the 
number  to  which  each  State  shall  be  entitled,  under  this  appor- 
tionment, shall  be  elected  by  districts  composed  of  contiguous 
territory,  equal  in  number  to  the  number  of  Representatives  to 
which  said  State  shall  be  entitled — no  one  district  electing 
more  than  one  Representative."  The  introduction  of  that 
section  into  the  apportionment  bill  was  too  singular  to  have 
escaped  observation.  The  gentleman  from  Georgia,  [Mr.  Ste- 
phens,] had  adverted  to  the  fact,  and  was  pleased  to  ascribe 
to  it  a  Democratic  origin.  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  satisfy 
the  gentleman  that  he  has  looked  into  the  history  of  its  intro- 
duction into  that  bill  with  a  too  careless  eye.  [Here  Mr.  Ste- 
phens (Mr.  B.  yielding  the  floor)  inquired  if  the  gentleman  de- 
nied the  fact  he  had  stated,  that  this  portion  of  the  bill  had 
been  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina,  Mr. 
Campbell.] 

Mr.  B.  replied  that  he  did  not  deny  the  correctness  of  that 
assertion ;  but  he  did  not  doubt  but  the  gentleman  understood 
the  fact  really  to  be  as  he  had  represented  it. 

[Mr.  Campbell  (  Mr.  B.  further  yielding  for  explanation)  observed  that 
the  gentleman  no  doubt  had  a  correct  recollection  of  the  origin  of  the 
second  section  of  this  act.  It  had  been  in  this  way  :  A  resolution  had  been 
introduced  by  him  (Mr.  C.)  instructing  the  Committee  of  Elections,  to  inquire 
into  the  expediency  of  regulating  the  subject  of  Congressional  elections  in 
euch  a  way,  by  law,  as  that  they  should  be  by  uniform  districts  throughout  the 
United  States.  Sometime  afterwards  the  Committee  of  Elections,  in  con- 
formity with  these  instructions,  reported  a  clause,  from  which  had  origina- 
ted this  second  section ;  which  clause  had  been  amended  on  his  motion, 
and  assumed  the  shape  which  it  now  occupied  in  the  law.  So,  Mr.  C.  had 
originated  the  proposition  in  the  first  instance,  and  in  the  second  instance, 
by  his  motion,  it  had  assumed  the  form  in  which  it  now  appeared  as  the 
second  section  of  the  act.] 

Mr.  Brown  replied,  that  he  did  not  mean  to  say  that  the 
gentleman  was  not  the  real,  as  he  certainly  was  the  putative 
father  of  the  district  proposition  of  that  session  ;  but  he  must 
insist  that  the  gentleman  should  content  himself  with  the  more 
humble  relation  of  mere  god-father  to  the  thought  of  making 


122  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

it  a  part  and  portion  of  the  apportionment  bill.  That  was  the 
great  matter  about  which  he  was  complaining.  The  appor- 
tionment bill  was  one  which  was  obliged  to  be  passed  in  some 
form  or  other.  Without  it  the  Federal  Government  would  run 
down  and  be  at  an  end.  The  forcing  of  this  section  on  such  a  bill 
as  that  he  denied  to  have  had  a  Democratic  origin.  He  meant 
to  demonstrate  that,  in  the  further  progress  of  his  remarks,  to 
every  man's  satisfaction.  The  gentleman's  own  resolution 
contemplated  no  connection  whatever  with  the  apportionment 
bill — it  expressly  called  for  a  separate  and  distinct  bill  by  it- 
self, to  stand  or  fall  by  its  own  merits.  Mr.  Brown  said  he 
would  now  proceed  on  his  observations. 

More  than  fifty  years  of  our  political  existence  had  rolled 
by,  and  no  such  legislation  had  ever  been  proposed.  State  af- 
ter State  had  risen  up  and  become  members  of  this  Confede- 
racy, not  one  of  which  had  ever  failed  cheerfully  and  promptly 
to  furnish  its  proportion  of  our  national  representation.  In 
peace  and  in  war — in  prosperity  and  in  adversity — amidst  the 
fiercest  conflict  of  parties — all  had  done  their  duty;  not  one 
had  failed  or  refused  to  regulate  "  the  time,  place,  and  man- 
ner" of  holding  elections,  as  required  by  the  Constitution. 
What,  then,  could  have  induced  the  Congress  of  1842,  with 
no  derelictions  on  the  part  of  the  States,  with  no  memorials 
from  the  seventeen  or  eighteen  millions  of  the  People  of  this 
country,  to  wage  this  wanton  and  unprovoked  war  on  the  con- 
stitutional rights  and  the  ancient  usages  of  the  States  ?  It 
was  the  blind,  infuriated  spirit  of  party,  vainly  endeavoring  to 
perpetuate  a  triumph  which  chance  or  fraud  or  folly  had 
achieved.  Those  who  were  influenced  by  it  had  the  sagacity 
to  devise,  and  the  heart  to  meditate,  but  not  the  hardihood  to 
consummate  the  deed.  They  could  declare  that  none  should 
be  admitted  to  membership  here  but  those  who  had  been  elect- 
ed by  districts ;  but  they  dared  not  rouse  the  sleeping  lion  of 
public  indignation,  by  laying  off  the  districts  themselves.  To 
show  you  that  I  am  not  mistaken  in  the  party  character  of  this 
war,  let  me  advert  to  the  fact,  that  the  idea  of  introducing  this 
second  section  into  the  apportionment  law  was  engendered  in 
the  Committee  of  Elections — a  committee  eminently  partisan 
in  its  head,  and,  indeed,  in  it3  whole  structure.     That  Com- 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  123 

mittee  had  no  charge  of  the  apportionment  bill ;  it  had  no  ju- 
risdiction  over  it.  The  preparation  of  that  bill  had  been  con- 
fided to  a  special  committee  of  thirteen,  who  had  reported  it 
with  no  such  clause  in  it.  It  was,  therefore,  gross  usurpation 
in  that  committee  to  attempt  to  supersede  the  special  one,  by 
reporting  amendments  to  it;  and  nothing  but  the  inveteracy 
of  party  would  have  sustained  its  arrogant  pretensions.  On 
the  26th  of  April,  whilst  the  apportionment  bill,  as  reported  by 
the  special  committee,  was  under  discussion  in  committee  of 
ths  whole,  Mr.  Halsted,  of  New  Jersey,  as  he  said  (for  he  made 
no  report,  and  could  have  made  none  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole)  by  order  of  the  Committee  of  Elections,  proposed  the 
second  section.  The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  [Mr. 
Campbell]  offered  an  amendment  to  Mr.  Halsted's,  changing  its 
phraseology,  but  not  its  meaning,  which  was  accepted  by  Mr. 
Halstedt  and  adopted  by  him  in  lieu  of  his  own.  The  whole 
Democratic  party  contended  against  the  amendment  at  every 
stage  of  its  progress ;  not  because  they  were  opposed  to  the 
districting  plan,  but  because  they  were  unwilling  to  see  it  en- 
forced on  the  States  by  the  strong  arm  of  Federal  domination. 
They  fought  it  on  every  inch  of  ground,  and  finally  recorded 
a  unanimous  vote  against  it.  [Here  Mr.  Campbell  reminded 
Mr.  B.  that  he  was  certainly  mistaken.]  Mr.  B.  Unanimous, 
did  I  say  ?  No,  I  am  wrong  in  that ;  the  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina,  [Mr.  C]  did  not  vote  with  us,  nor  fight  with  us.  Nay, 
he  fought  against  us.  He  went  over  to  the  enemy ;  and  they, 
delighted  with  the  acquisition,  instantly  promoted  him  to  the 
command,  and  he  actually  led  on  their  proud  imperious  co- 
horts to  the  charge.  I  need  not  tell  you  the  result.  Turn  to 
your  journals  of  the  3d  of  May,  and  you  will  find  that  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  was  overcome  by  a  vote  of  101  to  99.  The  gen- 
tleman's vote,  and  that  of  his  colleague,  Mr.  Sampson  Butler, 
would  have  saved  us  from  that  mortification.  It  would  have 
saved,  too,  twenty  members  of  this  House  from  the  humilia- 
tion of  having  to  stand,  as  they  have  stood,  unbonneted  and 
dishonored  at  the  door  of  one  of  your  distant  committee  rooms. 
This  section  was  thus  literally  forced  into  the  apportionment 
bill,  in  despite  of  all  the  exertions  and  resistance  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  What,  then,  was  to  be  done  ?    An  apportionment 


124  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

bill  was  obliged  to  be  passed.     The  Constitution  expressly 
commanded  that  it  should  be  passed.     Without  it,  there  could 
be  no  members  elected — in  fact,  no  Congress ;  and  the  Fed- 
eral Government  would  have  been  at  an  end.     To  avoid  a 
great  calamity  like  this,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  whole 
Democratic  party  would  have  been  justified  in  voting  for  the 
bill,  regarding  the  second  section  as  a  mere  nullity.     The 
Whig  party,  with  the  assistance  aforesaid,  had  forced  this  ob- 
noxious section  into  the  bill ;  but  as  the  existence  of  the  na- 
tion is  of  infinitely  higher  importance  than  all  considerations 
of  the  forms  and  modes  of  administering  it,  the  Democratic 
party  might  have  been  well  justified  in  voting  for  the  bill. 
Well,  what  did  they  do  ?    As  long  as  there  was  the  slightest 
hope  that,  by  rejecting  the  bill,  another  might  be  introduced > 
on  which  the  second  section  might  not  be  engrafted,  we  voted 
against  it.     First,  we  voted  against  the  engrossment.     It  was 
a  test  vote,  substituted  for  a  vote  on  the  final  passage  of  the 
bill ;  but  we  voted  in  vain.     A  motion  was  then  made  by  Mr. 
Cooper,  of  Georgia,  to  lay  it  on  the  table :  we  voted  for  that, 
but  all  in  vain ;  and  the  bill  was  sent  to  the  Senate.     Some 
hopes  were  entertained  that  the  Senate  might  come  to  our  re- 
lief, by  striking  the  section  from  the  bill.     Here,  too,  we  were 
disappointed ;  and  the  bill  was  returned  to  us  from  that  body 
with   sundry  proposed  amendments.     We  resolved  to  make 
one  more  effort.     The  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  [Mr.  Boyd,] 
moved  to  lay  the  bill,  with  all  the  amendments,  on  the  table. 
The  motion,  like  the  previous  one,  failed ;  and  with  it  expired 
all  hope  of  our  ever  being  able  to  get  clear  of  the  odious  section 
of  the  bill.     Sir,  this  was  the  last  effort  of  the  Democratic 
party  to  get  clear  of  this  section.     But  a  motion  was  after- 
wards made  by  Mr.  William  Cost  Johnson  to  lay  the  bill  on 
the  table ;  and  the  question  is  sometimes  asked,  why  we  did 
not  all  vote  for  that  with  the  same  unanimity  as  on  the  previ- 
ous motions.     Sir,  I  will  tell  you.     The  previous  motions  to 
lay  on  the  table  by  Mr.  Cooper  and  the  gentleman  from  Ken- 
tucky, [Mr.  Boyd,]  were  made  bonajide,  to  get  clear  of  the  se- 
cond section.     Mr.  Cost  Johnson's  was  not.     He  was  a  great 
friend  to  that  section.     He  had  voted  for  it,  and  I  believe  had 
voted  against  every  proposition  to  get  clear  of  it.     His  only 


BIGHT  OP  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  125 

object  was  to  get  an  alteration  of  the  ratio.  With  the  ratio 
we  were  satisfied,  and  wanted  no  alteration.  It  was  palpable 
that  his  purpose  was  to  use  a  portion  of  the  Democracy  in  get- 
ting a  ratio  to  suit  himself,  and  then  turn  round  and  use  the 
Whig  party  to  again  fasten  the  second  section  upon  us.  Sir, 
Democracy  may  be  overpowered ;  she  may  be  borne  down  by 
numbers  ;  but  she  can  not  be  played  upon  in  that  manner.  We 
knew  his  purpose  went  no  farther  than  an  alteration  in  the 
ratio.  We  voted  against  such  an  alteration.  This  was  the 
substance  and  true  nature  of  the  vote,  and  so  it  was  under- 
stood at  the  time. 

So  much,  sir,  for  the  action  of  Congress  on  the  passage  of 
this  law.  What  has  been  the  action  of  the  States  since  its  en- 
actment ?  Precisely  what  it  was  before.  The  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  expressly  provides  that  the  time,  place,  and 
manner  of  holding  elections,  shall  be  prescribed  by  the  Legis- 
latures of  the  different  States.  In  pursuance  of  that  provision, 
all  the  States  had  made  the  necessary  and  proper  regulations 
for  holding  them — four  by  the  general  ticket,  and  all  the  rest 
by  the  district  system.  These  four  were  New  Hampshire, 
Georgia,  Mississippi  and  Missouri.  Their  Representatives, 
presenting  themselves  here  with  the  commissions  of  their  re- 
spective States,  have  been  recognized  as  members,  not  only  in 
the  organization  of  the  House,  but  in  all  its  proceedings,  up  to 
this  time.  This  report  maintains  that  they  are  rightfully  and 
lawfully  here,  and  ought  to  continue  here,  with  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  members  of  this  House.  Why  should  they 
not  have  been  recognized  as  members  of  this  House  ?  They 
were  here  with  commissions  precisely  like  our  own ;  signed  by 
their  Governors,  countersigned  by  their  Secretaries,  and  attes- 
ted by  the  great  seal  of  their  States  respectively.  On  the  face 
of  these  commissions  it  does  not  appear  whether  they  were 
elected  by  the  district  or  general-ticket  plan.  No  rival  claim- 
ants were  here,  as  in  the  New  Jersey  case,  presenting  counter- 
credentials,  nor  calling  on  the  House  to  go  beyond  or  behind 
these  commissions.  The  shattered  remnants  of  that  party 
which  had  passed  the  law,  protested  against  their  recognition ; 
but  they  protested  in  the  face  of  credentials  precisely  like  their 
own  ;  in  the  face  of  their  own  favorite  doctrine,  so  much  relied 


126  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

on  in  the  New  Jersey  case,  that  the  broad  seal  of  a  State  was 
'prima  facie  evidence  of  a  right  to  a  seat  in  this  Hall.  Day  af- 
ter day  they  clamored  for  the  privilege  of  recording  at  full 
length  their  protest  against  their  admission.  According  to  all 
Parliamentary  law,  and  all  the  rules  of  correct  practice,  they 
had  no  such  right;  but,  in  a  party  point  of  view,  it  might  have 
been  better  to  have  allowed  them  to  spread  it  on  the  Journal. 
It  would  have  established  against  them,  to  all  future  genera- 
tions, an  inconsistency  in  doctrine,  an  instability  of  principle, 
only  equalled  by  the  atrocity  of  their  attempted  invasion  on 
the  rights  of  the  States. 

It  is  a  proud  reflection  that,  in  the  whole  history  of  this  sub- 
ject, the  Democratic  party  has  preserved  the  most  exact  and 
beautiful  consistency.  It  has  followed  the  light  of  all  the  ex- 
amples of  its  illustrious  founder.  In  originally  voting  against 
this  section,  and  in  afterwards  admitting  the  members  on  the 
presumptive  validity  of  their  credentials,  we  have  manifested 
the  most  delicate  and  scrupulous  regard  for  the  rights  of  the 
States. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  the  consti- 
tutionality of  the  second  section  of  the  apportionment  bill  of 
1842.  If  it  be  construed  as  a  command  to  the  States,  it  is  evi- 
dently unconstitutional.  If  it  fall  short  of  a  command,  but  is 
to  be  regarded  as  a  penalty  suspended  over  the  heads  of  the 
States,  depriving  them  of  representation  if  they  shall  fail  or 
refuse  to  conform  to  the  declared  will  of  Congress,  it  is  equally 
unconstitutional.  Who  ever  authorized  this  Government  to  hold 
.penalties,  conditional  or  unconditional,  over  the  heads  of  the 
sovereign  States  of  this  Union  ?  The  Constitution  may  com- 
mand them,  bu,t  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  cannot. 
The  Constitution  did  command  them  to  prescribe  the  time, 
place  and  manner  of  holding  the  elections,  and  the  States  of 
New  Hampshire,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  Missouri,  have  done 
so.  On  the  days  of  the  election  of  their  present  members, 
they  are  obeying  this  command  of  the  Constitution ;  for  they 
were  acting  throughout  the  election  under  laws  which  their 
Legislatures  had  enacted  in  precise  accordance  with  the  requi- 
sitions of  the  Constitution.  Their  laws,  then,  were  as  valid 
and  binding  as  any  law  passed  on  the  subject  by  Congress 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  127 

could  be,  so  far  as  the  source  of  power  for  such  legislation 
was  concerned — the  power  in  both  cases  running  back  and 
resting  on  the  Constitution.  It  is,  therefore,  perfectly  plain 
that  the  regulations  of  those  States  were  valid  and  binding 
at  the  time  of  their  elections,  unless  Congress  had  either  made 
new  ones  or  altered  those  of  the  States.  I  am  desirous,  sir,  to 
fix  your  attention  on  the  very  day,  and  on  the  hours  of  their 
elections.  The  people  were  assembled  to  exercise  the  great- 
est privilege  of  freemen ;  they  were  assembled  on  the  right 
day,  for  Congress  had  not  interferred  with  that ;  they  were 
assembled  at  the  right  places,  for  Congress  had  not  legisla- 
ted at  all  as  to  them;  what,  then,  remained  of  doubt  or 
of  question?  Why,  it  must  be  as  to  the  manner  of 
holding  the  election — what  officers  should  hold  it — how 
the  votes  should  be  taken  in,  whether  viva  voce  or  otherwise. 
If  the  word  manner  has  a  wide  signification  in  the  general,  it  is 
here  expressly  limited  by  the  word  holding.  Now,  remember 
that  the  Legislatures  of  those  States  had  provided  everything 
necessary  as  to  the  manner  of  holding  the  elections ;  they  had 
done  that,  too,  by  the  express  command  of  the  Constitution. 
But  did  Congress,  by  the  act  of  1842,  either  alter  these  regula- 
tions as  to  the  manner  of  holding  the  elections,  or  make  new 
ones  inconsistent  with  them  ?  Congress  did  not  touch  that 
subject  at  all;  it  did  not  allude  to  the  manner  of  holding  these 
elections — who  should  take  in  the  votes — whether  they  should 
be  given  viva  voce  or  otherwise :  all  these  matters  were,  there- 
fore, unrepealed  or  unaltered  by  the  act  of  Congress. 

The  elections  so  proceed.  The  people  assembled — on  the 
right  day — at  the  right  places ;  they  gave  in  their  votes  to  the 
right  officers,  who  declared  the  result,  and  certified  according- 
ly. Well,  so  far,  none  will  deny  but  that  the  people  have  done 
all  in  their  power,  and  that  they  have  acted  not  only  in  accor- 
dance with  the  laws  of  the  State,  but  with  those  of  Congress. 
Why,  then,  can  they  not  have  their  Representatives  on  this 
floor  ?  They  have  complied  literally  with  the  laws  of  tne 
State,  and  these  laws  were  passed  precisely  according  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  nor  have  they  acted  in  any- 
wise inconsistent  with  any  law  of  Congress  in  relation  to  the 
manner  of  holding  their  elections ;    why,  then,  cannot  they 


128  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

have  the  benefit  of  representation  here  ?  Gentlemen  answer, 
because  those  States  have  not  been  laid  off  into  districts.  Well, 
I  take  the  answer.  Who  did  not  lay  off  the  districts  ?  First, 
Congress  did  not;  secondly,  those  States  did  not:  no  other 
body  could  have  done  it.  And  so  between  the  action  of  Con- 
gress or  of  the  Legislatures,  the  people  are  to  be  deprived  of 
the  great  and  inalienable  right  of  representation.  Sir,  it  can- 
not be  so — it  must  not  be  so.  Every  intendment  must  be  made, 
and  every  construction  must  be  given  to  the  action  of  Con- 
gress and  of  the  Legislatures,  which  will  preserve,  and  not  de- 
stroy, a  right  so  justly  dear  to  freemen.  Gentlemen  reply  to 
this  by  saying,  that  although  Congress  did  not  lay  off  the  dis- 
tricts, yet  she  declared  that  the  number  to  which  each  State 
should  be  entitled  should  be  elected  by  districts,  and  that  these 
districts  should  be  composed  of  contiguous  territory,  and  that 
it  was  left  to  the  States  to  lay  them  off  or  not,  as  they  might 
think  proper.  Mark,  sir,  the  high  imperative  words  which 
these  gentlemen  employ — which  their  law  of  1842  employs: 
"  Shall  be  elected  by  districts" — "  shall  be  composed  of  con- 
tiguous territory."  To  whom  is  this  language  addressed  but 
to  the  Legislatures  of  the  States  ?  If  Congress  did  not,  who 
else  could  lay  off  the  districts  but  the  Legislature  ?  who  are 
even  told  how  to  lay  them  off — "  of  contiguous  territory ;"  and 
yet  gentlemen  have  over  and  over  again  admitted  that  as  a 
command  of  the  General  to  the  State  Governments,  it  is  entire- 
ly null  and  void. 

Let  us  now  take  another  step  in  the  progress  of  this  argu- 
ment. Suppose  these  four  States  to  have  obeyed  this  command 
of  Congress,  and  to  have  laid  off  the  districts  :  then,  of  course 
the  election  would  have  been  held  by  districts.  Why  ?  Sim- 
ply because  the  last  law  of  the  State,  establishing  the  district 
system,  would  have  repealed  the  former  law  of  the  State  es- 
tablishing the  general-ticket  system.  So,  if  Congress,  instead 
of  issuing  a  command  which  it  could  not  enforce,  had  proceeded 
to  lay  off  the  districts  for  and  within  the  several  States,  then  it 
might  have  been  argued,  on  the  other  side,  that  the  later  act 
of  Congress,  establishing  the  district  system,  repealed  and 
disannulled  the  former  laws  of  the  States,  establishing  the  gen- 
eral-ticket system.     In  both  these  cases  the  argument  is,  that 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  129 

the  setting  up  of  the   one  system  is  the  pulling  down  of  the 
other.  Well,  let  us  test  this  question  by  that  argument.  Did  Con- 
gress set  up  a  district  system  so  incompatible  with  the  general 
ticket  of  the  States  as  to  supersede  or  displace  it?    Did  Con- 
gress set  up  or  establish  a  district  system  at  all?   She  declared 
there  should  be  one  set  up  or  established  by  somebody,  but  by 
whom,  she  did  not  say.     She  did  not  set  it  up  herself;  and  the 
advocates  of  her  laws  say  she  did  not  mean  to  command  the 
States  to  set  up  or  establish  it ;  and  these  four  States,  accord- 
ingly, have  not  done  so.     The  conclusion  follows  this  state- 
ment of  the  facts,  that,  by  not  laying  off  the  districts  herself, 
Congress  has  only  issued  an  abstract  declaration  of  her  will 
and  pleasure,  without  setting  up  any  system  superseding  or 
displacing  that  of  the  States.     As  a  rule  of  action  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  people,  it  is  impracticable.     As  a  system  for 
the  preservation  of  their  rights,  it  is  impossible  of  execution. 
But  shall  their  rights,  therefore,  perish  ?     Certainly  not.     Un- 
secured by  the  vague  and  impracticable  legislation  of  Con- 
gress, they  shall  live  and  abide  in  the  legislation  of  the  States ; 
founded  on  the  same  authority  as  that  of  Congress — the  Con- 
stitution of  the  land.     It  was  to  guard  and  preserve  to  the 
people  this  great  right  of  suffrage,  that  a  double  protection 
was  provided  by  the  Constitution.     It  was  to  be  protected  both 
by  the  Legislature  of  the  States  and  by  Congress :    neither 
could  destroy  it.     If  the  Legislature  should  assail  it  by  pre- 
scribing no  regulations  as  to  the  time,  place,  and  manner  of 
exercising  it,  then  Congress  might  make  them.     But  the  true 
question  is,  can  Congress,  under  this  conservatory  provision, 
do  anything,  not  to  preserve,  but  to  destroy  this   great  right? 
Could  Congress  say,  "I  have  left  this  power  long  enough  with 
the  States,  and  will  therefore  take  it  to  myself" — the   whole 
power  over  the  time,  place,  and  manner  of  holding  elections  ? 
Saying  and  resolving  this,  could  she  pass  a  law  declaring  that 
all   laws   and  parts   of  laws  passed  by  the  States    provid- 
ing for  the   holding  of  elections   for  Congress,    should  be 
repealed,  and    that   hereafter    all  laws   upon    that    subject 
shall    be    passed  only  by  herself?     If   she  went   no  farther 
than  that ;  if  she  did    not  actually   make  the  necessarf  law  3 
for  holding    elections,  would  such  a  law  be  a  valid  repeal 
10 


130  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

of  the  State  laws,  and  would  the  right  of  suffrage  be  lost 
and  sacrified?  No,  sir,  never.  Congress  would  have  no 
right  to  repeal  the  State  laws  at  all.  Her  abstract  declara- 
tion would  pass  for  nothing ;  and  it  would  be  only  by  going  on 
beyond  such  abstractions,  and  actually  building  up  a  system 
of  regulations  totally  inconsistent  with  those  of  the  States, 
that  she  ever  could  supersede  them.  This  glorious  right,  lying 
deep  in  the  foundations  of  our  free  institutions,  could  not  have 
been  better  secured.  If  it  may  ever  die  in  the  Legislatures 
of  the  States,  it  is  because  it  springs  into  new  life  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  ;  and  when  it  dies  here,  it  is  re- 
animated in  the  States.  Sir,  in  the  theory  of  our  form  of 
Government,  it  is  an  immortal  right,  and  can  never  perish 
but  with  our  free  institutions. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  many  other  views  of  this  constitu- 
tional question,  but  I  have  not  time  to  take  them.  I  think  it 
may  well  be  questioned  whether  the  term  manner  has  allu- 
sion to  the  laying  off  of  districts  at  all ;  and  I  entertain  strong 
doubts  whether,  if  Congress  assume  jurisdiction  over  any  part 
of  the  regulations  of  elections,  she  must  not  take  jurisdiction 
of  the  whole.  However  these  question  may  be  solved,  I  am 
clear  in  the  opinion,  that  if  she  assume  to  regulate  the  time, 
she  must  specify  the  time ;  if  the  place,  she  must  designate 
the  place;  and  if  the  manner  relates  to  districts,  she  must  create 
the  district,  or  other  territorial  division.  These  are  my  opin- 
ions ;  and  I  was  in  nothing  so  much  surprised  as  that  the 
dominant  party,  who  passed  the  law,  should  have  stopped 
short  of  actually  laying  off  the  districts  ;  that  being  the  most 
effectual  way  to  have  secured  the  accomplishment  of  their 
purposes.  What  were  those  purposes  ?  I  have  already  stated 
them — the  perpetutation  of  their  ill-gotten  power.  The  elec- 
tions were  turning  rapidly  against  them.  Something  must  be 
done.  This  plan  was  devised.  The  ancient  usages  of  the 
States  were  to  be  disregarded,  and  a  command  was  to  be  sent 
forth  which  they  knew  many  of  the  lion-hearted  Democratic 
States  would  scorn  to  obey.  Scorning  to  obey,  they  might  re- 
turn members  to  this  House,  who  might  sue  in  vain  for  admis- 
sion here.  Rejected,  as  they  hoped  all  such  would  be,  and  as 
all  such  would  have  been  but  for  the  unusual  Democratic 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  131 

strength  of  this  session,  the  sceptre  of  power  might  still  be  re- 
tained by  them,  in  spite  of  the  murmurs  of  a  deceived  and  in- 
sulted people.  Did  you  not  mark  the  promptness,  as  if  by 
concert  and  premeditation,  with  which  the  question  of  their 
admission  was  sprung  upon  the  House  on  the  first  day  of  the 
session.  Never  before,  since  the  foundation  of  this  Govern- 
ment, was  a  document  found  ready  printed  and  laid  upon  our 
tables  before  Congress  was  even  organized.  The  speech  of 
one  of  the  advocates  of  this  second  section,  made  in  1842,  was 
here,  bright  and  fresh  from  the  press,  by  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  Besides  this,  did  you  ever  see  so  long  a  protest  pre- 
pared and  presented  in  so  short  a  time  ?  Everything  seems  to 
have  been  "  cut  and  dried"  for  the  occasion.  Now,  sir,  sup- 
pose your  majority  here  had  not  exceeded  twenty,  do  you  not 
perceive  the  consequences  ?  With  a  large  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  Democratic,  you  would  have  had 
a  Whig  Speaker — Whig  Committees — Whig  Printers — Whig 
organization  throughout ;  and  the  whole  system  of  Whig  mea- 
sures might  have  been  still  fastened  on  the  country — condemn- 
ed and  repudiated  as  they  had  been  by  the  American  people. 
What  could  have  saved  this  country  from  such  results  ? 
Nothing  I  know  of,  nothing  but  a  repetition  of  those  Execu- 
tive votes,  which  entitle  the  President  to  the  lasting  gratitude 
of  the  nation.  Even  now  you  every  day  hear  the  sound  of 
the  guillotine  from  the  other  end  of  this  building,  and  behold 
the  headless  bodies  of  their  victims  borne  away  from  the  Capi- 
tol ;  what  would  have  been  the  state  of  things  then,  with  both 
branches  fully  organized  against  you  ?  W'hat  could  you  have 
done  to  stay  the  arm  of  Federal  domination  ?  In  connexion 
with  this  view  of  the  subject,  take  that  other  bill  passed  at 
that  session  auxiliary  to  this — the  bill  providing  for  the  organ- 
ization of  this  House.  The  Constitution  expressly  provided 
that  each  House  should  be  the  judge  of  the  election,  qualifi- 
cation, and  return  of  its  own  members.  By  that  bill  all  this 
power  was  given  to  your  then  Clerk,  a  warm  and  devoted 
friend  to  the  dominant  party.  No  appeal  could  be  taken 
from  his  dicision — his  decree  of  admission  or  rejection  was  to 
be  final  and  conclusive.  I  know  it  is  often  said  that  such  ad- 
mission was  to  last  only  during  organization,  and  until  the 


'■'■■iH'HUJUIMMi 


132  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

Committee  of  Elections  might  report  on  the  case.  When 
might  that  be  ?  Look  at  the  New- Jersey  case  ;  the  Nailor  and 
Ingersoll  case  ;  at  the  Florida  case,  and  others,  and  tell  me  if 
this  might  not  be  at  the  end  of  the  Congress  ?  That  bill  was 
a  most  flagitious  outrage  on  the  right  of  this  House.  It  brought 
you,  impotent  and  powerless,  at  the  feet  of  your  own  Clerk. 
But  that  bill  passed  ;  and  nothing  saved  you  from  its  opera- 
tion but  the  noble  conduct  of  the  President,  in  not  returning  it 
within  the  time  required  by  the  Constitution,  it  being  the  very 
close  of  the  session.  Taking,  then,  these  two  laws  together, 
and  they  exhibit  the  deepest  laid  scheme  for  the  perpetuation 
of  power  ever  laid  since  the  formation  of  this  Government. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  one  point  of  view  in  which  the  pas- 
sage of  this  second  section  should  be  peculiarly  obnoxious  to 
the  American  people.     The  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, after  it  had  been  made,  was  of  vast  importance  and  of 
painful  solicitude.     Many  of  the  illustrious  men  who  framed 
it  were  extremely  doubtful  of  its  ratification.     The  State  Con- 
ventions, to  whom  it  was  referred,  participated  fully  and  deep- 
ly in  this  solicitude.     They  found  many  things  in  it  which  they 
did  not  really  approve;  but  rather  than  hazard  the  whole  of  that 
sacred  instrument,  they  concluded  to  let  them  pass,  and  trust 
to  the  future  wisdom  of  Congress  not  to   abuse  the  powers 
which  they  had  conferred.     The   clause  of  the  Constitution 
which  declared  that  Congress  might  make  or  alter  the  regula- 
tions of  the  States,  as  to  the  time,  places  and  manner  of  hold- 
ing elections,  is  a  most   apt   and  striking  illustration.     The 
power  was  too  broad  in  its  language.     They  desired  Congress 
to  have  the  power  only  in  the  single  case  where  the  States 
would  not  or  could  not  make  such  regulations ;  but  the  terms 
seemed  to  extend  beyond  that.     What  should  they  do?    Re- 
ject the  Constitution,  and  trust  to  the  formation  of  another? 
The  difficulties  they  had  encountered  in  the  formation  of  this, 
and  the  incalculable  mischief  growing  out  of  the  want  of  a 
Constitution,  induced  them  at  last  to  ratify  it  as  it  was  ;  but  to 
leave  on  their  records,  for  the  guide  and  instruction  of  their 
posterity,  the  most  solemn  instructions  that  they  should  never 
take  advantage  of  the  defect.     It  was  a  known,  declared,  ad- 
mitted defect.     But  they  appeal  to  their  posterity  to  appre- 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  133 

ciate  the  trying  circumstances  by  which  they  were  surrounded, 
and  never  to  take  advantage  of  it.  That  appeal  sunk  deep  in 
the  heart  of  every  American  bosom,  and  was  never  disregard- 
ed till  1842, 

Sir,  let  us  go  back  to  the  records  of  that  ancient  time,  and 
read  the  very  words  of  exhortation  and  instruction  which  were 
uttered  by  those  immortal  patriots  who  ratified  the  Constitu- 
tion. I  begin  with  Massachusetts.  What  did  she  say  as  to  the 
very  clause  under  discussion  ?  She  placed  upon  her  records 
the  following  declaration : 

"  The  Convention  do  therefore  recommend  that  the  following  alterations 
and  provisions  be  introduced  into  the  said  Constitution  :  Section  3.  That 
Congress  do  not  exercise  the  powers  vested  in  them  by  the  fourth  section 
of  the  first  article,  but  in  a  case  when  a  State  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to 
make  the  regulations  therein  mentioned,  or  shall  make  regulations  sub- 
versive  to  the  rights  of  the  people  to  a  free  and  equal  representation  in 
Congress,  agreeable  to  the  Constitution.  And  this  Convention  do,  in  the 
name  and  in  behalf  of  this  Commonwealth,  enjoin  it  upon  their  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  at  all  limes,  until  the  alterations  and  provisions 
aforesaid  shall  have  been  considered  agreeably  to  the  fifth  article  of  said 
Constitution,  to  exert  all  their  influence,  and  use  all  reasonable  and  legal 
methods  to  obtain  a  ratification  of  said  alterations  and  provisions,  in  such 
manner  as  is  provided  in  said  article." 

Sir,  had  any  State  failed  or  refused  to  provide  for  the  elec- 
tion of  members  to  Congress  ?  Not  one.  Did  the  Represen- 
tatives of  that  ancient  Commonwealth  "  exert  all  their  in- 
fluence" against  the  exercise  of  this  power  in  any  other  case? 
They  did  not ;  but  voted  for  this  seetion,  in  disregard  to  the 
most  solemn  injunctions  of  their  fathers. 

I  next  advert  to  the  State  of  South  Carolina — the  Palmetto 
State — so  proud,  and  so  justly  proud,  of  those  illustrious  pa- 
triots who  adorn  her  Revolutionary  history.  Her  Convention 
declared  that  the  power  to  make  regulations  for  the  election 
of  members  should  be  forever  inseparably  annexed  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  States,  except  in  the  single  case  of  refusal 
or  neglect  by  the  States  ;  and  they  adopted  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

■  And  whereas  it  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  rights  reserved  to 
the  several  States,  and  the  freedom  of  the  people,  under  the  operations  of 
a  general  government,  that  the  right  of  prescribing  the  manner,  time,  and 


134  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

places  of  holding  the  elections  to  the  Federal  Legislature,  should  be  in- 
separably annexed  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  several  States  :  This  Conven- 
tion doth  declare,  that  the  same  ought  to  remain,  to  all  posterity,  a  per- 
petual and  fundamental  right  in  the  local,  exclusive  of  the  interference  of 
the  General  Government,  except  in  cases  where  the  Legislatures  of  the 
States  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  perform  and  fulfil  the  same,  according  to 
the  tenor  of  the  said  Constitution." 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  a  standing  instruction  to  all  such  Delegates  as  may 
hereafter  be  elected  to  represent  this  State  in  the  General  Government,  to 
exert  their  utmost  abilities  and  influence  to  effect  an  alteration  of  the 
Constitution  conformably  to  the  foregoing  resolution." 

Need  I  pause  to  inquire  whether,  in  the  adoption  of  this  se- 
cond section  the  Representatives  of  that  gallant  State  did  exert 
their  utmost  abilities  and  influence  in  obedience  to  these  stand- 
ing instructions  ?  I  have  already  told  you  that  two  of  them 
felt  at  liberty  wholly  to  disregard  them — solemn  and  time- 
honored  as  they  were,  these  gentlemen  felt  at  liberty  to  dis- 
regard them. 

The  State  of  New  Hampshire  comes  next  in  order — the 
granite  State — granite  in  her  Democracy,  as  she  is  in  her 
geology.  The  declaration  of  her  Convention  is  in  nearly  the 
very  words  of  Massachusetts ;  limiting  the  exercise  of  this 
power  to  the  single  case  of  neglect  and  refusal,  and  enjoining 
at  all  times  on  her  Representatives  to  make  such  limitation  an 
express  and  positive  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

"The  Convention  do  therefore  recommend  thatthe  following  alterations 
and  provisions  be  introduced  into  the  said  Constitution  : 

"  III.  That  Congress  do  not  exercise  the  powers  vested  in  them  by  the 
fourth  section  of  the  first  article,  but  in  cases  when  a  State  shall  neglect  or 
refuse  to  make  the  regulations  therein  mentioned,  or  shall  make  regula- 
tions subversive  of  the  rights  of  the  people  to  a  free  and  equal  representa- 
tion in  Congress ;  nor  shall  Congress  in  any  case  make  regulations  con- 
trary to  a  free  and  equal  representation." 

"And  the  Convention  do,  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  this 
State,  enjoin  it  upon  their  Representatives  in  Congress,  at  all  times,  until 
the  alterations  and  provisions  aforesaid  have  been  considered  agreeably  to 
the  fifth  article  of  the  said  Constitution,  to  exert  all  their  influence,  and 
use  all  reasonable  and  legal  methods,  to  obtain  a  ratification  of  the  said 
alterations  and  provisions,  in  such  manner  as  is  provided  in  the  said 
article." 

Virginia  (next  in  order)  went  farther  than  all  this.     She  not 


BIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET.  1 35 

only  declared  in  favor  of  an  amendment  limiting  the  power  to 
the  case  of  refusal  or  neglect,  but  she  expressly  enjoined  it 
upon  her  Representatives,  until  such  alteration  of  the  Consti- 
tution shall  be  made,  "  to  conform  to  the  spirit  of  the  amend- 
ments, as  far  as  the  said  Constitution  will  admit." 

"  XVI.  The  Congress  shall  not  alter,  modify,  or  interfere  in  the  times, 
places,  or  manner  of  holding  elections  for  Senators  and  Representatives, 
or  either  of  them,  except  when  the  Legislature  of  any  State  shall  neglect 
or  refuse,  or  be  disabled  by  invasion  or  rebellion,  to  prescribe  the  same." 

"As  the  Convention  do,  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  this  Commonwealth  , 
enjoin  it  upon  their  representatives  in  Congress  to  exert  all  their  influence  , 
and  use  all  reasonable  and  legal  methods,  to  obtain  a  ratification  of  the  fore- 
going alterations  and  provisions,  in  the  manner  provided  by  the  fifth  article 
of  the  said  Constitution  ;  and  in  all  congressional  laws  to  be  passed  in  the 
mean  time,  to  conform  to  the  spirit  of  these  amendments,  as  far  as  the  said 
Constitution  will  admit." 

The  State  of  New  York  was  peculiarly  guarded  and  cau- 
tious in  her  ratification  of  the  Constitution.  Amongst  other 
limitations  and  conventional  constructions  of  that  instrument, 
she  declares  "her  adoption  of  this  clause,  under  the  expecta- 
tion that  Congress  will  not  make  or  alter  any  regulation  in  this 
State  respecting  the  time,  place,  and  manner  of  holding  elec- 
tions for  Senators  and  Representatives,  unless  the  Legislature 
of  this  State  shall  neglect,  or  refuse  to  make  laws  or  regula- 
tions for  the  purpose,  or,  from  any  cause,  be  incapable  of 
making  the  same  ;  and  in  those  cases  such  power  will  only  be 
exercised  while  the  Legislature  of  this  State  shall  make  pro- 
vision in  the  premises."  But  the  New  York  Convention  did 
not  stop  even  here ;  they  adopted  the  very  words  of  Virginia, 
and  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  the  people,  instructed  their 
Representatives  that  until  this  clause  should  be  amended,  "  all 
laws  to  be  passed  by  Congress  in  the  meantime  to  conform  to 
the  spirit  of  such  amendments,  as  far  as  the  Constitution  will 
admit." 

I  come  now  to  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  She  gives  a 
most  emphatic  expression  of  her  views  and  wishes  in  relation 
to  the  extent  of  this  power  in  Congress  over  the  "  time,  place, 
and  manner  of  electing  Representatives  to  Congress."  Her 
seventeenth  amendment  provides  "  that  Congress  shall  not 


136  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEEC 

alter,  modify,  or  interfere  in  the  times,  places,  or  manner  of 
holding  elections  of  Senators  and  Representatives,  or  either 
of  them,  except  when  the  Legislature  of  any  State  shall  neg- 
lect or  refuse,  or  be  disabled  by  invasion  or  rebellion,  to  pre- 
scribe the  same." 

When  Rhode  Island  soon  after  the  rest,  came  in,  it  was  un- 
der a  ratification,  declaring  the  same  purpose  to  amend  the 
Constitution  on  this  point ;  and  until  it  was  done  her  positive 
injunctions  to  her  Representatives  were,  like  those  of  New 
York  and  Virginia,  that  they  should  conform  to  the  spirit  of 
such  amendments. 

Thus,  sir,  I  have  given  you  seven  out  of  the  old  thirteen  States, 
who  contended  against  a  literal  construction  of  the  Constitu- 
tion as  it  was  worded  ;  seven  out  of  the  thirteen  who  declared 
that  its  wording  must  be  changed ;  seven  out  of  the  thirteen 
who  declared  that,  until  it  was  so  altered,  their  members  of 
Congress  must  conform  to  the  spirit  of  that  clause  as  they  had 
expounded  it.  What  a  sacred,  what  a  holy  injunction  was 
here !  They  did  not  like  the  words  of  this  section ;  but  they 
approved  the  balance  of  the  Constitution.  They  believed  the 
future  glory  and  prosperity  of  their  country  depended  on  its 
immediate  adoption.  They  were  unwilling  to  risk  losing  all 
for  the  sake  of  some  few  amendments  to  it.  In  this  great 
emergency  they  ratified  it  as  it  was ;  but  called  on  their  pos- 
terity to  the  remotest  generation,  not  to  take  advantage  of  its 
specified  defects,  but  to  conform  to  its  spirit  with  fidelity  and 
honor. 

Sir,  I  will  not  speak  for  others ;  but  I  will  say  for  myself, 
that  I  would  tear  the  seals  from  a  father's  will ;  I  would  disre- 
gard his  last  dying  request,  as  soon  as  I  would  have  disre- 
garded the  consecrated  instructions  of  these  great  benefactors 
of  their  country.  Sir,  let  us  restore  these  instructions — let  us 
re-establish  their  will,  by  repealing  the  second  section  of  the 
apportionment  act.  Let  us,  moreover,  re-affirm  the  invalidity 
of  this  section,  by  continuing  a  full  representation  of  all  the 
States  on  this  floor.  There  is  not  a  warmer  friend  to  the  dis- 
trict plan  of  electing  members  of  Congress  than  I  am.  But 
let  it  be  done  freely  and  voluntarily  by  the  States  themselves 
and  not  be  forced  on  them  by  the  strong  arm  of  Federal 


RIGHT  OF  MEMBERS  ELECTED  BY  GENERAL  TICKET,  137 

power.  Almost  every  State  in  the  Union  is  now  electing  by  dis- 
tricts. Repeal  this  section  of  the  law — withdraw  your  uncon- 
stitutional mandamus,  as  some  regard  it — remove  those  pains 
and  penalties  which  you  have  suspended  over  the  States,  and 
I  do  not  doubt  that,  in  less  than  two  years,  scarce  a  single 
State  will  be  found  electing  by  the  general  ticket. 


SPEECH, 

On   the    Territorial  Government  of  Oregon;    delivered  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  Monday,  January  27,  1845. 


Mr.  A.  V.  Brown  said,  in  reply  to  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  why  he  had  made  the  motion  to  strike  out  the 
word  "  nine,"  he  would  state  that,  at  the  last  session,  when 
the  Committee  on  Territories  reported  this  bill,  it  was  reported 
correctly  but  by  some  mistake  in  copying,  or  otherwise,  49 
minutes  was  inserted  instead  of  40.  Where  did  the  commit- 
tee get  the  54  degrees  40  minutes  from?  he  supposed  was  the 
question  substantially  which  the  gentleman  intended  to  ask. 
He  read  from  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  of 
last  session,  showing  that  that  parallel  was  taken  from  the 
treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Russia  of  April,  1824. 

The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  seemed  anxious  that 
this  subject  should  lie  over.  Mr.  B.  had  called  it  up  this  morn- 
ing because  of  its  importance  to  the  whole  country,  and  be- 
cause he  had  given  assurance  that  he  would  move  it  immedi- 
ately after  the  settlement  of  the  great  Texas  question.  Thus 
he  had  called  it  up ;  he  had  no  design  however  to  press  it  with 
a  precipitancy  unbecoming  the  magnitude  of  the  question. 

So  far  as  related  to  the  American  title  to  the  country,  to  the 
full  extent  of  the  limits  proposed  by  the  bill,  as  reported  by  the 
committee,  he  knew  of  no  public  man  in  the  United  States  who 
did  doubt  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  full  extent  of 
fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes.  But  the  Committee  on  Ter- 
ritories, when  they  proposed  to  extend  our  laws  to  the  whole 
extent  of  that  country,  did  not  imagine  that  they  were  interfer- 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON,  139 

ing  in  the  slightest  degree  with  the  negotiation  now  in  progress 
upon  the  subject;  and  the  committee  believed  that  the  United 
States  was  asserting  only  the  same  jurisdiction  over  that  entire 
country  that  Great  Britian  was  now  exercising.  It  was  well 
understood  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  now  extended 
over  that  whole  territory.  Why,  then,  might  not  we  do  what 
they  proposed  ?  Our  people  had  gone  to  that  country,  to 
which  few,  if  any,  entertained  the  slightest  doubt  of  our  title; 
and  being  there,  they  stood  every  day  in  need  of  our  legisla- 
tion. Great  Britian  had  her  magistrates  there ;  she  had  sent 
thither  her  code  of  laws,  her  judicial  tribunals  ;  she  had  forti- 
fications studded  all  over  that  country  ;  and  what  was  there  in 
existing  treaties  which  forbade  our  doing  the  same  thing? 
Should  we  lag  behind — ay,  should  we  longer  lag  behind  on 
this  great  question  ?  We  did  not  propose  to  do  more  than  she 
had  done,  but  to  do  as  much;  and  he  trusted  that  this  House, 
would  never  hesitate  to  do  it,  which  they  might  do  without 
riolating  any  existing  stipulations  between  the  two  coun- 
tries. 

He  had  never  believed  that,  under  the  treaty  of  1818,  or  of 
1827,  Great  Britain,  or  any  of  her  subjects,  ever  held  joint 
possession  or  occupancy  of  that  territory  with  the  United  States. 
The  Committee  on  Territories  entertained  the  opinion  that  we 
had  had,  at  least  since  1812,  exclusive  right  of  possession;  and 
Great  Britain  had  never  divided  that  right  with  the  United 
States  at  all.  The  stipulation  of  the  treaty  was  only  that 
they  should  have  the  privilege  of  entering  through  the  bays  and 
harbors  of  that  country  into  Oregon,  for  the  purpose  of  carry- 
ing on  their  trade,  for  purposes  of  hunting  and  fishing,  &c; 
but  while  they  had  this  privilege  it  never  was  intended  by  the 
stipulations  of  our  treaty  that  they  should  come  in  and  claim 
Undivided  possession  of  the  territory.  However  that  might  be, 
if  they  claimed  joint  possession  with  the  United  States,  and 
had  extended  their  laws  there,  was  there  any  reason  why  the 
United  States  might  not  do  the  same  thing  ?  There  might  be 
collisions,  to  be  sure,  in  joint  occupation;  and  when  they 
arose,  they  must  be  provided  for ;  but  the  question  of  the  pro- 
bability of  collision  was  not  one  which  addressed  itself  to  this 
House  at  all.      That  was  a  question  for  the  consideration  of 


140  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

the  executive,  whether  he  should  give  the  notice  contemplated 
by  the  convention  of  1827.  Now,  the  Committee  on  Territo- 
ries believed,  when  they  reported  this  bill,  that  they  were  ac- 
ting strictly  and  exclusively  within  the  legislative  powers  of 
Congress;  that  they  were  leaving  the  executive  to  act  when 
and  how  it  pleased  with  regard  to  giving  this  notice  to  termi- 
nate what  was  usually  called  the  joint  possession  of  this  coun- 
try. That  was  a  question  with  which  they  did  not  intend  to 
interfere.  The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  had  stated  that 
he  had  no  doubt  as  to  the  ownership  by  the  United  States  of 
that  country  from  forty-two  to  forty-nine  degrees.  Well,  over 
so  much  of  the  territory  it  would  be  right  to  extend  our  laws 
and  our  institutions  ;  and  the  committee  believed  our  title  was 
good  from  forty-nine  degrees  to  fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes, 
and  they  proposed  to  extend  our  jurisdiction  over  the  whole 
country. 

Suppose,  now,  this  jurisdiction  progressed  and  terminated  by 
the  loss  of  that  portion  of  the  country,  (which  he  supposed 
only  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  and  which  he  had  no  idea 
would  be  the  case,)  why,  to  that  extent  the  treaty  stipulations 
between  the  two  countries  would  curtail  our  legislation,  and 
would  leave  our  resolutions  in  full  force,  and  our  laws  in  full 
operation  over  the  whole  territory  south  of  the  line  ultimately 
agreed  on  by  this  negotiation.  So,  that  in  no  possible  point  of 
view  could  he  imagine  any  reason  why  this  House  should  not 
go  as  far  as  they  were  called  on  to  go  by  the  Committee  on 
Territories.  Let  the  negotiation  terminate  as  it  might,  there 
must  be  a  large  portion  of  the  territory  to  which  Great  Britain, 
although  she  had  claims,  had  yet  no  just  claims;  and  over  that 
territory  our  legislation  was  to  be  extended. 

But  inasmuch  as  Great  Britain,  as  the  gentleman  from  Mas- 
sachusetts had  said,  exercised  jurisdiction  as  far  as  forty-two 
degrees,  could  we  not  as  well  exercise  jurisdiction  up  to  fifty- 
four  degrees  forty  minutes,  with  as  much  propriety;  leaving  all 
questions  with  regard  to  settlement  of  boundary  to  the  negotia- 
tion, as  now  progressing,  and  leaving  this  House  and  the  other 
branch  of  Congress  to  establish  a  territorial  government  in 
that  country,  subject  to  whatever  was  the  result  of  the  nego- 
tiation ? 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  141 

In  this  view  the  bill  was  reported ;  and  he  desired,  in  order 
that  every  gentleman  should  be  fully  apprised  of  the  grounds 
on  which  the  bill  was  presented  to  the  House,  that  a  few  pages 
of  the  report  of  last  session  accompanying  the  bill  should  be 
read. 

They  were  read  by  the  Clerk  accordingly,  as  follows  : 
In  presenting  this  bill  thus  modified,  and  recommending  its 
passage,  it  is  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  the  committee  to  know 
that  it  is  in  precise  accordance  with  the  avowed  opinions  not 
only  of  the  present,  but  of  several  preceding  Presidents  of  the 
United  States.  As  far  back  as  December,  1824,  Mr.  Monroe, 
in  his  annual  message  to  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  strongly 
recommended  the  propriety  of  establishing  a  military  post  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  river,  or  at  some  other  point  within 
our  acknowledged  limits.  This  he  did,  not  only  as  a  protec- 
tion to  our  then  increasing  commerce,  and  to  our  fisheries,  but  as 
a  protection  to  all  our  interests  in  that  quarter,  and  as  a  means 
of  conciliating  the  various  tribes  of  Indians  throughout  our 
northwestern  possession.  He  further  added,  "that  it  was 
thought,  also,  by  the  establishment  of  such  a  post,  the  inter- 
course  between  our  western  States  and  Territories  and  the 
Pacific,  and  our  trade  with  the  tribes  residing  in  the  interior, 
on  each  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  would  be  essentially 
promoted.  Mr.  Adams,  in  his  message  to  the  next  succeeding 
Congress,  follows  up  this  suggestion  of  Mr.  Monroe,  and  re- 
commends not  only  the  establishment  of  a  military  post  at  or 
ifiear  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  but  the  equipment  of  a  pub- 
lic ship  for  the  exploration  of  the  whole  northwestern  coast  of 
this  continent.  If  these  recommendations  are  limited  to  the 
protection  of  our  commerce  and  fisheries,  to  the  trade  with 
intermediate  Indian  tribes,  and  to  the  promotion  of  our  in- 
tercourse with  the  Pacific,  it  must  have  been  only  because  at 
that  time  we  had  no  fixed  population  there,  looking  to  the  per- 
manent settlement  of  the  country  for  agricultural  purposes. 
Since  1824  and  1825,  however,  we  have  advanced  far  beyond 
the  then  necessities  of  our  people,  and  are  now  called  upon  to 
give  the  protection  of  our  laws  and  the  benefit  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions to  those  who  have  made  it  their  permanent  abode, 


142  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

and  whose  purposes  are  to  bring  into  cultivation  that  vast  por- 
tion of  our  empire. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  annual  message 
at  the  commencement  of  the  present  session,  presented  these 
altered  circumstances  in  the  condition  of  that  country  to  the 
attention  of  Congress,  and  with  much  cogency  recommended 
the  very  measure  which  the  committee  have  reported.  He  says : 
"  In  the  mean  time,  it  is  proper  to  remark,  that  many  of  our 
citizens  are  either  already  established  in  the  Territory,  or  are 
on  their  way  thither,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  permanent 
settlements,  while  others  are  preparing  to  follow;  and,  in  view 
of  these  facts,  I  must  repeat  the  recommendations  contained 
in  previous  messages,  for  the  establishment  of  military  posts 
at  such  places  on  the  line  of  travel,  as  will  furnish  security  and 
protection  to  our  hardy  adventurers  against  hostile  tribes  of 
Indians  inhabiting  those  extensive  regions.  Our  laws  should 
also  follow  them,  so  modified  as  the  circumstance  of  the  case 
may  seem  to  require.  Under  the  influence  of  our  free  system 
of  government,  new  republics  are  destined  to  spring  up,  at  no 
distant  day,  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  similar  in  policy  and 
in  feeling  to  those  existing  on  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  giving  a  wider  and  more  extensive  spread  to  the  principles 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

In  the  bill  which  we  have  reported,  it  will  be  found  that  we 
have  responded  not  only  to  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Monroe  and 
Mr.  Adams  in  relation  to  the  establishment  of  military  posts 
but  we  have  adopted  the  just  and  proper  sentiments  of  the 
present  executive  in  reference  to  the  increased  settlement  of 
our  population  in  that  distant  region.  Our  people  have  gone 
to  Oregon,  and  we  are  only  sending  our  laws  after  them.  It 
might  be  greater  precision,  however,  to  say  that  our  laws  had 
preceded  them ;  that  they  had  been  always  there,  coeval  with 
our  rights  to  the  country ;  and  that  we  are  now  only  proposing 
to  give  them  activity  and  force  by  government  organization. 
In  doing  so,  we  introduce  no  new  policy  into  the  action  of  the 
federal  government.  At  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  our 
national  independence,  our  population  was  confined  to  a  com- 
paratively narrow  slip  of  country  bordering  on  the  Atlantic. 
As  fast,  however,  as  our  settlements  extended  into  the  West 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  143 

in  sufficient  numbers,  new  Territories  were  established.  These, 
at  first,  were  confined  to  the  Mississippi  river  for  their  common 
western  boundary.  After  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  the 
same  wise  and  necessary  policy  has  been  pursued,  observing 
limits,  in  several  cases,  but  little  short  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
In  the  rapid  march  of  our  empire-republic,  the  time  has  now 
arrived  for  the  extension  of  the  same  policy  beyond  those 
mountains,  recognising  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  as  the  only 
final  terminus  of  our  dominions. 

The  propriety  of  this  extension  is  dependent,  of  course,  on 
the  validity  of  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  territory 
embraced  in  the  bill.  This  question  we  were  obliged  to  meet 
anterior  to  ail  action  on  the  subject.  In  its  investigations  we 
have  looked  into  the  most  authentic  histories  of  voyages  and 
discoveries  on  the  northwestern  coast  of  America.  We  have  con- 
sulted the  opinions  of  our  most  distinguished  and  best-informed 
public  men,  from  Mr.  Jefferson  down  to  the  present  time.  We 
have  carefully  examined  all  the  treaties  among  the  several  na- 
tions claiming  to  have  an  interest  in  the  subject;  not  neglect- 
ing to  profit  by  the  reports  made  by  Mr.  Baylies  to  the  19th, 
and  Mr.  Cushing  to  the  25th  Congress,  and  by  the  several 
reports  and  speeches  of  the  late  lamented  Senator  from  Mis- 
souri, who  had  devoted  so  much  of  the  labor  of  his  great  mincl 
to  the  investigation  of  this  subject.  The  result  of  all  this  inves- 
tigation has  been  a  thorough  conviction  that  the  United  States 
has  a  good  and  indefeasible  title,  as  against  any  foreign  power, 
to  the  country  extending  east  and  west  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains to  the  Pacific  ocean  ;  and  north  and  south  from  the  limits 
of  Mexico,  in  latitude  42  degrees  north,  to  those  of  Russia,  in 
latitude  54  degrees  40  minutes  north. 

The  southern  boundry  was  fixed  by  the  treaty  with  Spain 
in  1819,  commonly  called  the  Florida  treaty.  By  that  treaty 
it  is  agreed  that  the  boundary  line  between  the  possessions  of 
the  two  nations  west  of  the  Mississippi,  after  reaching  the 
river  Arkansas,  shall  be,  "  following  the  course  of  the  south- 
ern bank  of  the  Arkansas  to  its  source  in  latitude  42  degrees; 
and  thence  by  that  parallel  of  latitude  to  the  South  sea."  In 
1828  this  line  was  confirmed  by  Mexico,  as  the  successor  of 
Spain,  in  a  treaty  of  limits  between  herself  and  the  United 


144  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

States.  Southern  boundry  is,  then,  fixed  and  certain.  As  to 
the  northern  one,  it  was  settled  at  54  degrees  and  40  minutes, 
by  a  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Russia,  dated  17th 
April,  1824,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  there  should  not  be 
formed  by  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  under  the 
authority  of  the  same,  any  establishment  upon  the  northwest 
coast  of  America,  nor  in  any  of  the  islands  adjacent,  to  the 
north  of  54  degrees  and  40  minutes  of  north  latitude ;  and,  in 
like  manner,  none  by  Russia  or  her  subjects  south  of  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude. 

By  virtue  of  these  treaties,  Russia  on  the  north,  Mexico  on 
the  South,  and  the  United  States  on  the  east,  are  all  agreed 
and  well  satisfied  as  to  the  boundaries  of  the  Oregon  country. 
Great  Britain  alone  asserts  or  pretends  any  title  to  it,  or  any 
part  of  it,  adverse  to  that  of  the  United  States. 

Before  we  enter  upon  any  examination  of  her  title,  we  re- 
spectfully beg  leave  to  submit  our  views  on  another  question 
presented  to  our  consideration.  It  is  contended  that  the  pas- 
sage of  the  bill  now  reported  would  be  inconsistent  with  the 
actual  relations  of  the  two  governments  defined  by  the  conven- 
tion of  the  20th  October,  1818.     The  3d  article  is  as  follows : 

"  Art.  3.  It  is  agreed  that  any  country  that  may  be  claimed  by  either  party 
on  the  northwestern  coast  of  America,  -westward  of  the  Stony  mountains,  shall 
together  with  its  harbors,  bays,  and  creeks,  and  the  navigation  of  all  rivers 
within  the  same,  be  free  and  open  for  the  term  of  ten  years  from  the  date  of 
the  signature  of  the  present  convention,  to  the  vessels,  citizens,  and  subjects 
of  the  two  powers.  It  being  well  understood,  that  this  agreement  is  not  to 
be  construed  to  the  prejudice  of  any  claim  which  either  of  the  two  high 
contracting  parties  may  have  to  any  part  of  said  country  ;  nor  shall  it  be  ta- 
ken to  affect  the  claim  of  any  other  power  or  State  to  any  part  of  said  coun- 
try :  the  only  object  of  the  high  contracting  parties,  in  that  respect,  being  to 
prevent  disputes  and  differences  among  themselves." 

The  provisions  of  this  article  were  indefinitely  extended  by 
the  convention  of  1827 — with,  however,  an  agreement  that  it 
should  be  competent  for  either,  at  any  time  after  the  20th  Oc- 
tober, 1828,  on  giving  due  notice  of  twelve  months  to  the  other 
contracting  party,  to  annul  and  abrogate  said  convention. 
The  first  remark  which  the  committee  will  submit  on  the  pro- 
visions of  the  3d  article  of  the  convention  of  1718,  is,  that  they 
do  not  refer  to  the  possession  of  the  territory  at  all.  That  pos- 
session had  always  been  in  the  United  States  until  the  war  of 


m 

TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  145 

1812.  It  was  then  lost  by  conquest;  but  it  was  fully  restored 
by  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  the  formal  surrender  of  it  to  the 
United  States  under  that  treaty.  It  was  only  the  right  of  en- 
tering into  the  country — into  its  bays  and  harbors — for  the  mere 
purposes  of  such  trade  and  commerce  as  was  then  carried  on 
in  that  region,  that  was  secured  to  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 
The  same  rights  might  have  been  extended  to  any  of  the  ports, 
bays,  and  rivers  of  the  Atlantic ;  but  if  extended  in  the  pre- 
cise words  of  the  convention  of  1818,  who  would  have  thought 
that  Great  Britain  would  have  been  admitted  to  the  joint  occu- 
pancy of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas, 
and  the  other  States  of  the  Union  ? 

If  the  possession  of  the  territory  was  in  the  United  States  at 
the  time  of  the  convention  of  1818 — a  fact  which  no  one  has 
ever  attempted  to  deny — the  provision  of  the  3d  section  can 
only  be  regarded  as  a  permission  to  the  subjects  of  Great 
Britain  to  participate  with  ours  in  the  individual  rights  of  trade 
and  commerce  enjoyed  by  our  own  citizens  within  the  territory. 
The  bill  which  is  now  reported  does  not  eject  them  from  the 
country  at  all.  It  does  not  deprive  them  of  the  privilege  of  en- 
tering into  the  country,  its  bays  and  rivers ;  not  at  all.  But  it 
even  guaranties  a  fuller  and  more  perfect  enjoyment  of  these 
individual  rights,  under  an  organized  and  well- administered 
system  of  laws.  From  extreme  caution,  and  to  exhibit  towards 
Great  Britain  the  most  scrupulous  regard  for  all  existing  stip- 
ulatious,  which  might  be  supposed  to  have  an  application  to 
the  subject,  the  bill  proposes  a  speedy  surrender  of  all  British 
subjects  who  may  be  charged  with  any  violation  of  our  laws 
to  the  nearest  British  authorities  having  jurisdiction  over  such 
cases.  The  permission  given  to  British  subjects  to  participate 
with  our  own  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  personal  or  individual 
rights  within  the  territory,  never  can  be  considered  as  circum- 
scribing the  right  of  the  United  Sates  to  establish  a  proper 
government  for  the  regulation  of  all  persons  inhabiting  the 
country,  of  which  she  had  the  undisputed  possession.  In  this 
view,  the  provision  for  delivering  up  British  subjects  to  their 
nearest  tribunals  could  not  have  been  justly  required;  but 
the  same  has  been  conceded  by  the  committee,  on  the  scrupu- 
lous principle  just  adverted  to. 
11 


146  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

As  to  the  twelve  months'  notice  required  to  be  given  by  the 
convention  of  1827,  the  committee  do  not  regard  that  as  at  all 
necessary,  in  order  to  open  the  way  to  such  action  as  is  con- 
templated by  this  bill.  The  committee  do  not  know  that,  for 
the  purpose  of  organizing  such  a  government  as  is  now  con- 
templated, it  is  at  all  important  to  annul  or  abrogate  that 
convention.  That  country  is  large,  and  there  is  evidently 
room  enough  for  the  subjects  and  citizens  of  both  countries, 
in  the  exercise  of  all  their  enterprise  in  trade  and  commerce. 
All  that  will  be  required  of  them  is  to  conform  to  the  laws,  and 
to  respect  the  institutions,  which  we  may  establish.  Doing 
this,  we  shall  never  envy  the  equal  participation  in  the  bene- 
fits and  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  well  organized  system 
of  government.  Any  possible  inconvenience  arising  from  the 
continuance  of  the  convention  of  1827,  not  now  anticipated 
by  the  committee,  can,  and  doubtless  will,  be  looked  to  by  the 
executive,  who  can  at  any  time  abrogate  the  same,  by  giving 
the  notice  contemplated  in  it.  The  giving  of  that  notice,  be- 
ing a  matter  of  treaty  stipulation,  belongs,  perhaps,  exclu- 
sively to  the  executive ;  on  whose  province  there  is  no  occasion 
and  the  committee  have  no  inclination  to  intrude. 

In  connection  with  this  branch  of  the  subject,  the  commit- 
tee will  advert  to  the  fact,  (as  it  is  now  understood  to  be,)  that 
negotiations  are  in  progress  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  on  the  subject  of  this  territory.  They  conceive 
that  this  should  make  no  difference  in  the  action  of  the  com- 
mittee. They  have  to  act  on  the  subject  as  it  is  now  presen- 
ted to  them — not  as  it  may  be  changed  or  altered  hereafter,  by 
any  future  arrangements  between  the  two  countries.  If  the 
United  States  have  now  the  right  to  the  Oregon  country — if 
they  have  now  the  sole  and  undisputed  possession  of  it — if  our 
people  have  now  permanent  settlements  in  it,  and  every  day 
suffering  for  the  want  of  properly-organized  government  to 
protect  the  virtuous  and  restrain  the  vicious — we  ought  not  to 
withhold  our  action,  under  the  possibility  of  some  alteration  in 
the  relations  of  the  two  countries  in  that  region,  at  some  uncer- 
tain and  indefinite  period.  That  negotiation  can  still  progress; 
and  any  treaty  stipulation  inconsistent  with  our  legislation, 
will  control  it  to  the  extent  of  such  interference.    No  one,  we 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON,  H7 

believe,  supposes  that  the  pending  negotiations  can  ever  result 
in  the  entire  loss  of  the  Oregon  country.  Enough  will  doubt- 
less remain  of  it,  under  any  circumstances,  to  require  the  ex- 
tension of  our  laws  in  the  manner  now  contemplated.  If  the 
present  negotiation  relates  (as  the  committee  apprehend  it 
does)  solely  to  the  ascertainment  and  settlement  of  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  territory,  they  can  anticipate,  from  no  ex- 
amination which  they  have  been  able  to  make,  any  such  loss  of 
country  in  that  direction,  as  will  at  all  affect  the  propriety  of 
the  passage  of  the  bill  which  is  now  presented  to  the  House. 

There  is  enough,  doubtless,  for  that  negotiation  to  act  upon, 
without  resorting  even  to  the  supposition  that  any  portion  of 
our  territory  south  of  latitude  fifty-four  degrees  forty  minutes 
north  may  be  lost.  We  propose  the  extension  of  our  laws 
fully  up  to  that  latitude,  and  will  now  submit  the  grounds  on 
which  we  maintain  that  the  United  States  has  a  full  and  inde- 
feasible right  and  title  to  that  point.  We  adopt  as  our  own, 
and  submit  to  the  house,  the  views  of  a  former  committee  on 
the  question  of  title ;  which  we  believe  must  carry  conviction 
to  every  disinterested  and  impartial  mind. 


February  4th. 

Mr.  A.  V.  Brown  supposed  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
submit  some  few  remarks  in  reply  to  the  gentleman  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, [Mr.  Adams.]  The  gentleman  seemed  to  think  that 
some  days  ago  he  treated  him  with  some  degree  of  rudeness  in 
declining  to  postpone  this  bill  to  a  day  that  he  proposed.  In 
reply  to  a  suggestion  at  the  time  made  by  the  gentleman,  he 
said  that  he  had  no  disposition  to  drive  this  bill  through,  but 
that  it  was  subject  to  the  direction  of  the  members  of  the 
House,  who  could  hasten  or  retard  its  progress  as  they  pleased* 
What  was  the  reason  the  gentleman  gave  for  wishing  to  post- 
pone it?  Why,  there  was  a  book  which  very  few  had  heard 
of,  that  gave  so  much  information  on  this  subject  that  every 
difficulty  would  be  settled  by  getting  it,  and  he  wanted  to  delay 


148      w  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

the  action  of  the  House  till  that  book  was  procured.  Why, 
this  book  had  been  published  years  ago  by  order  of  the  Senate, 
and  every  member  of  the  House  could  get  it  by  application 
for  it.  But  it  was  said  there  was  a  new  and  enlarged  edition 
of  it,  which  gave  new  lights  which  were  not  found  in  the  first 
edition.  But  who  did  not  know  that  the  reports  made  to  the 
House  by  Mr.  Pendleton,  and  by  Mr.  Cushing,  on  this  very 
subject,  contained  all  the  information  that  could  be  given  on 
it?  Indeed,  either  of  them  was  far  more  valuable  than  Mr. 
Greenhow's  book,  and  could  be  had  by  any  member  that 
desired,  at  a  moment's  warning.  Again,  the  gentleman  said 
that  he  was  satisfied  that  our  title  to  the  country  was  indispu- 
table. Why,  then,  wait  for  any  body's  book?  The  gentleman 
quoted  him  as  saying  that  he  considered  it  the  duty  of  the 
executive  only  to  give  the  twelve  month's  notice  to  end  the 
joint  occupancy,  and  that  this  House  had  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  Now,  the  gentleman  did  not  explain  his  (Mr.  B.'s)  position 
correctly.  He  did  say  that  the  executive  was  competent  to 
give  the  notice,  without  the  action  of  the  House,  having  more 
information  on  the  subject  than  they  could  possibly  have ;  but 
he  did  not  say  the  House  had  no  right  to  give  the  notice. 
That  was  a  point  which  the  committee  did  not  touch  on  in  their 
report,  and  which  he  did  not  make  in  his  remarks  of  yesterday. 
The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  had  read  a  portion  of 
the  correspondence  between  the  two  countries  at  a  former 
period,  and  by  examination  of  the  report,  part  of  which  had 
been  read,  it  would  be  found  that  the  committee  had  adverted 
to  the  same  correspondence,  and  incorporated  in  their  report 
the  material  part  of  that  correspondence — or  such  as  they 
supposed  would  have  a  material  influence  on  the  question. 
He  wished  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  had  read  a 
little  further  than  he  did  of  that  correspondence.  On  the  23d 
page  of  the  report  the  committee  speak  as  follows : 

"  The  injustice  done  to  the  United  States  by  the  double  use  which  Great 
Britain  makes  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  was  strongly  urged  by  Mr. 
Gallatin,  in  his  conferences  with  the  British  ministers  on  the  subject,  in 
1826  and  1827.  The  British  ministers  were  not  insensible  to  the  force  of 
his  objections.  And  the  following  passage  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  letter  of  De- 
cember 20th,  1826,  is  important  in  its  bearing  upon  the  question  of  what 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  149 

legislation  Congress  may  adopt,  without  infringement  of  the  treaty  rela- 
tions of  the  two  powers: 

"  *  The  establishment  of  a  distinct  territorial  government  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Stony  Mountains  would  also  be  objected  to  as  an  attempt  to 
exercise  exclusive  sovereignty.  I  observed  that,  although  the  Northwest 
company  might,  from  its  being  incorporated,  from  the  habits  of  the  men 
they  employed,  and  from  having  a  monopoly  with  respect  to  trade,  so  far  as 
British  subjects  were  concerned,  carry  on  a  species  of  government  without 
the  assistance  of  that  of  Great  Britain,  it  was  otherwise  with  us.  Our 
population  there  would  consist  of  several  independent  companies  and  indi- 
viduals. We  had  always  been  in  the  habit,  in  our  most  remote  settle1 
ments,  of  carrying  laws,  courts,  and  justices  of  the  peace  with  us.  There 
was  an  absolute  necessity,  on  our  part,  to  have  some  species  of  govern- 
ment. Without  it,  the  kind  of  sovereignty,  or  rather  jurisdiction,  which  it 
was  intended  to  admit,  could  not  be  exercised  on  our  part.' " 

Now  what  follows,  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  did 
not  read, 

"It  was  suggested,  and  seemed  to  be  acquiesced  in,  that  the  difficulty  might 
be  obviated,  provided  that  the  erection  of  a  new  territory  was  not  confined 
exclusively  to  the  territory  west  of  the  mountains  ;  that  it  should  be  defined 
as  embracing  all  the  possessions  of  the  United  States  west  of  a  line  that 
should  be  at  some  distance  from,  and  east  of  the  Stony  Mountains." 

After  commenting  on  these  extracts,  the  honorable  gentle- 
man proceeded.  The  bill  at  the  last  session  was  drawn  in  con- 
formity with  these  suggestions,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  Iowa 
was  proposed  to  be  extended  over  the  Territory  of  Oregon ; 
but  at  the  present  session  Iowa  was  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Union,  and  to  take  her  laws  would  be  inconvenient,  if  not 
inconsistent.  What  then,  was  the  committee  to  do,  with  the 
prospect  of  Iowa  coming  into  the  Union  ?  Why,  they  went 
on  to  establish  a  distinct  Territory,  beginning  at  the  summit 
qf  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  this  they  had  departed  from  the 
letter  of  the  admissions  made  by  the  British  minister ;  but  had 
they  departed  from  them  in  substance  ?  What  had  they  done  ? 
He  put  the  law  of  1803 — and  it  was  that  law  which  had  de- 
ceived so  many  gentleman  on  this  floor — it  was  in  that  law 
that  they  pretended  to  find  an  exemption  of  American  citizens 
from  the  operation  of  British  laws.  But  in  1803  they  knew 
that  American  citizens  were  not  there  in  any  considerable 
numbers ;  there  were  Europeans  there,  and  it  was  in  their 
favor  that  the  exemptions  were  made.     But  in  1821  our  claims 


150  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

had  ripened  up,  our  citizens  had  gone  there,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  make  a  new  provision.  What,  then,  did  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  do  ?  Extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the  laws  in 
force  in  Canada  to  the  Oregon,  appointed  justices  of  the  peace, 
who,  being  sent  there,  had  jurisdiction  in  certain  cases  ;  and 
every  man,  whether  an  American  citizen  or  a  British  subject, 
was  subject  to  the  laws  passed  by  the  British  Parliament,  For 
the  higher  offences,  the  party  committing  them  was  arrested 
and  taken  to  Canada  for  trial.  He  invited  the  attention  of 
gentlemen  to  an  examination  of  the  law  of  1821,  which  exten- 
ded the  laws  of  Great  Britain  over  that  country,  to  see  if  they 
could  find  one  solitary  exception  in  favor  of  American  citizens. 
He  hoped  they  would  be  able  to  do  it ;  he  should  rejoice  at  the 
discovery  if  such  a  provision  could  be  found ;  but  he  could  not 
find  it  himself,  and  he  questioned  if  anybody  else  could. 

He  now  came  to  the  question  of  what  they  proposed  to  do 
by  this  bill.  Was  it  anything  which  the  British  Parliament 
had  not  done  by  its  legislation  ?  He  maintained  that  they 
proposed  to  do  no  more  than  the  British  Parliament  had  done 
— not  one  solitary  thing.  Was  it  said  that  the  British  Parlia- 
ment had  not  sent  governors  to  Oregon  ?  Be  it  so :  but  the 
British  governor  was  in  Canada,  and,  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
he  was  governor  of  Oregon,  though  not  actually  being  in  the 
territory  ;  and  when  we  appoint  a  governor  and  send  him  to 
the  place  where  his  duties  are  to  be  performed,  there  was  no 
difference  in  point  of  principle.  The  English  Judges,  too,  re- 
side in  Canada,  and  ours  would  reside  in  Oregon.  Was  there 
any  actual  difference  in  principle  in  that?  Were  we  carrying 
out  rights  beyond  what  Great  Britain  had  done  ?  Where  and 
in  what  respect,  were  we  going  one  inch  beyond  the  example 
which  England  had  set  us  ?  And  if  we  do  not  go  beyond  that 
example,  where  is  the  cause  for  war?  What  provication  do 
we  give  for  war?  Not  the  slightest;  and  Great  Britain  could 
not  declare  war  against  us  for  anything  contained  in  this  bill, 
unless  she  sought  a  war  for  another  purpose,  and  if  that  was 
her  desire,  he  would  say,  let  her  have  it — in  the  first  day  and 
hour  that  she  desired  it,  let  her  have  it.  Since  he  had  had  a  seat 
on  this  floor,  he  had  seen  more  than  one  day  when  he  could 
have  said,  let  her  have  it.     Who  did  not  remember  the  case  of 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  151 

the  "  Caroline,"  when  British  soldiers  were  rowed  with  muffled 
oars  to  our  shores,  and  cut  loose  an  American  steamer  which 
they  sent  blazing  down  the  stream  and  over  the  cataract  of  the 
Niagara,  with  all  her  unfortunate  inmates  ?  The  waters  of  the 
Niagara  have  been  long  since  closed  over  that  ill-fated  vessel, 
but  a  cry  for  vengeance  came  up  from  the  deep  and  troubled 
waters  in  which  the  Caroline  was  engulfed.  For  the  present, 
however,  he  would  let  that  pass.  Why  should  England  talk  of 
war  ?  Was  it  because  we  take  possession  of  the  disputed 
Territory  just  as  she  has  done  ?  He  could  not  believe  that 
such  a  result  would  ensue. 

He  then  proceeded  to  say  that  he  had  never  seen  an  Ameri- 
can Congress  take  hold  of  an  American  question  with  abetter 
spirit  than  on  this  occasion,  and  therefore  he  had  heard,  with 
pleasure,  the  suggestions  which  had  been  made,  come  from 
what  quarter  they  might.  One  suggestion  offered  and  reasoned 
upon  by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania,  had  convinced  him, 
and  he  adopted  the  suggestion,  and  had  prepared  an  amend- 
ment precisely  in  accordance  therewith.  It  had  been  said,  you 
are  breaking  the  third  article  of  the  convention  by  passing 
this  bill ;  but  this  he  denied.  But  again,  it  was  urged,  suppose 
it  should  be  so  understood,  and  Great  Britain  should  believe 
that  they  intended  to  do  so.  Well,  to  negative  this,  he  had 
prepared  a  provision  reciting  that  third  article,  and  then  guar- 
ding against  such  a  conclusion.  Now  he  supposed  that  would 
obviate  all  objections,  but  another  gentleman  rose  and  said, 
oh !  you  are  taking  a  step  that  Great  Britain  never  intended 
nor  contemplated.  Wliat  was  that?  Oh!  you  are  dividing 
out  and  partitioning  the  land,  regardless  of  the  rights  of 
Great  Britain.  To  this  he  replied,  that  they  knew  very  well 
that  any  grant  of  land  must  be  subject  to  the  future  adjust- 
ment of  the  two  countries ;  but  if  they  would  rather  have  it  so 
expressed  in  the  bill,  be  it  so  ;  and  to  meet  that  he  had  pre- 
pared a  provision.  But  how  would  that  operate?  Were  the 
people  who  were  settling  south  of  the  Columbia  river  ever  to 
be  disturbed  under  any  circumstances?  Were  we  ever  to 
lose  a  foot  of  land  there?  There  was  not  an  American  citi- 
zen whose  heart  would  not  leap  in  his  breast  at  the  bare  idea 
of  making  any  concessions  south  of  the  Columbia  river.     But 


152  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

suppose  our  citizens  should  settle  north  of  the  Columbia  river 
beyond  forty-nine  degrees  of  north  latitude,  or  fifty,  fifty-one, 
fifty-two,  fifty-three,  fifty-four,  and  beyond  the  line  that  might 
be  drawn  whenever  this  question  shall  be  settled  by  negotiation, 
or  by  war  if  they  pleased :  the  moment  our  title  failed  to  the 
part  on  which  those  citizens  resided,  they  would  drop  down  to 
our  undisputed  territory  and  say  they  had  lost  their  pre-emp- 
tion right ;  and  who  would  say  that  this  government  could  not 
at  once  give  them  another  pre-emption  right  as  good  ?  Did  that 
embarrass  the  case?  Not  at  all.  Who  was  there,  then,  that 
was  not  willing  to  give  a  pledge  to  every  man  that  should  go 
to  that  country  and  cultivate  it,  of  a  liberal  renewal  of  pre- 
emption right  elsewhere,  if  he  should  be  dispossessed  by  the 
establishment  of  the  British  title  to  the  land  he  might  occupy  ? 
Would  that  injure  the  British  government  ?  Could  she  take 
offence  at  such  a  provision  in  our  law  ? 

From  these  remarks  the  committee  would  perceive  that  he 
had  availed  himself  of  every  suggestion  which  had  been  made, 
so  as  to  make  the  bill  acceptable  to  the  House,  as  he  thought 
it  would  be  acceptable  to  the  British  government.  He  came 
next  to  speak  of  the  suggestions  made  by  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts,  which  coming  from  him,  were  of  great  weight 
and  importance.  The  objection  was,  that  they  had  started  at 
the  wrong  end,  and  that  they  should  give  the  notice  first.  Now 
he  (Mr.  B.)  did  not  so  understand  it.  If  that  were  the  cor- 
rect course,  he  would,  with  pleasure,  follow  in  the  wake  of  the 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  ;  but  he  did  not  so  understand 
it.  Why  did  they  propose  to  pass  this  measure?  Simply  be- 
cause our  people  have  gone  to  that  country,  and  are  there 
without  government,  and  we  want  to  give  them  the  benefit  of 
our  laws.  They  had  not  fled  from  their  country,  nor  from  our 
laws  and  institutions;  they  have  carried  all  with  them,  and  what 
was  now  proposed,  was,  to  give  them  the  benefits  of  our  laws 
in  their  urgent  necessities.  Some  gentlemen  said  they  had  got 
judges  there  already  ;  but  they  were  laws  for  organized  British 
society,  and  they  were  British  judges.  They  preferred  our 
laws  to  British  laws.  But  it  was  said  they  had  organized  their 
own  society,  and  had  framed  their  own  laws.  True,  they  had 
for  some  government  was  necessary  j  but  nothing  could  induce 


TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENT  FOR  OREGON.  153 

them  to  adhere  to  their  own  organization,  but  our  refusals  to 
meet  their  wants  and  necessities.  But  if  they  should  first  give 
the  notice  of  twelve  months,  they  would  be  met  with  the  plea 
that  the  British  settlers  could  not  abandon  the  territory,  be- 
cause they  had  contracts  made  and  business  unsettled.  And 
if  they  gave  notice  to  quit,  and  the  British  did  not  then  quit, 
what  would  be  the  next  step  ?  Would  they  drive  away  the 
foreign  settlers  ?  In  such  a  case  would  they  not  resist  on  the 
ground  of  the  necesssity  to  stand  in  self-defence.  This  bill, 
however,  avoided  the  evils  of  a  different  course,  and  gave  to 
American  citizens  a  government  and  the  protection  of  laws 
which  the  British  settlers  enjoyed. 

The  honorable  gentleman  recapitulated  some  of  the  pro- 
visions of  this  bill  for  the  trial  of  persons  guilty  of  crimes,  to 
show  their  liberality;  and  that  they  must  prove  unexceptiona- 
ble to  Great  Britain.  He  said  he  was  careful  that  they  should 
do  nothing  wrong;  and  then  he  could  bid  any  power  defiance. 
He  confessed  that  he  was  afraid  of  an  unjust  war  with  Eng- 
land or  any  other  nation ;  but  when  we  had  justice  on  our 
side,  he  would  quail  before  no  power  on  this  globe ;  arid  this 
would  account  for  the  zeal  which  he  felt  on  this  and  on  the 
Texas  question  too.  He  wanted  Texas  because  England 
wanted  it.  Great  Britain  did  not  desire  any  increase  of  our 
power  which  would  make  us  more  formidable  to  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  The  stars  of  our  republic  shone  so  bright  that 
they  have  attracted  the  envy  of  foreign  nations  :  the  crowned 
heads  of  Europe  looked  upon  our  prosperity  with  amazement; 
for  they  knew  the  impression  which  our  example  produced  on 
their  own  population,  and  hence  they  were  desirous  to  destroy 
the  influence  of  our  example. 

He  wanted  Oregon  for  the  same  purpose ;  he  wanted  our 
population  to  spread  from  ocean  to  ocean — from  the  Aroos- 
took on  the  north  to  the  Rio  Del  Norte  on  the  South — a  mag- 
nificent empire  which  should  strike  terror  and  dismay  to  the 
enemies  of  our  institutions,  and  of  republican  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. Give  us  this  bill,  (said  Mr.  B.,)  guarded  cautiously 
benevolently  guarded,  as  it  was  ;  give  us  Texas,  and  we  will 
have  an  empire  before  us  which  will  fill  every  American  heart 
with  pride  and  with  joy. 


SPEECH, 

In  the  House  of  Representative,  March  17,  1840 — On  the  Resolu- 
tion reported  from  the  Committee  of  Elections  by  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, their  chairman,  proposing  to  print  all  the  testimony  con- 
nected with  the  New  Jersey  contested  election,  and  the  amend- 
ment of  Mr.  Garland,  of  Louisiana,  to  print  other  testimony 
referred  to  that  committee,  subsequent  to  its  report : 


Mr.  Brown  desired  that  the  resolution  might  be  read,  on 
which  this  exciting  and  extraordinary  debate  had  been  going 
on.  He  desired  it,  that  the  House  might  be  brought  back  to 
the  precise .  character  of  the  proposition  before  it — not  one 
touching  the  merits  of  the  controversey ;  not  one' involving  the 
truth  of  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  report,  nor  the  action  of  the 
House,  in  admitting  five  of  these  gentlemen  to  temporary 
membership  on  this  floor.  All  these  things  have  passed  by — 
the  report  has  been  made — it  has  been  sanctioned  by  the 
House,  and  the  five  gentlemen  are  now  here  present  in  their 
seats.  All  the  testimony  on  which  these  proceedings  have 
taken  place,  has  been  reported  to  the  House,  and  the  commit- 
tee now  stand  here  desiring  and  insisting  that  it  should  be  prin- 
ted. But  these  papers,  now  desired  to  be  also  printed,  were  not 
considered  by  the  committee,  because  they  were  never  before 
them  in  the  form  of  evidence.  Not  one  solitary  member  ever 
saw  the  inside  of  that  package  until  after  the  report  was  made. 
It  was  sealed  up  from  all  inspection,  and  therefore  constituted 
no  part  of  the  foundation  of  this  report.  Why  then  should  it 
be  printed  with  it,  as  a  part  of  it,  when  in  truth  and  fact  it 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  155 

was  never  opened  here,  nor  referred  to  the  committee,  until 
after  its  report  had  been  made  ?  We  desire  all  the  testimony 
before  the  committee,  and  on  which  the  report  was  founded,  to 
be  printed  and  sent  out  with  it,  in  order  that  the  people  of  this 
country  may  be  able  to  see  and  determine  whether  the  com- 
mittee and  this  House  have  done  right  in  the  New  Jersey 
case.  To  print  these  depositions,  which  came  in  after  the  re- 
port, can  shed  no  light  on  the  propriety  of  what  has  been  done. 
They  are  now  before  the  committee,  and  should  continue  there 
until  the  remaining  depositions  shall  arrive,  and  the  whole 
case  come  on  for  final  hearing  on  the  ultimate  rights  of  the 
party.  They  will  then  be  printed  in  connection  with  the  others, 
and  go  to  the  world  as  a  part  of  the  New  Jersey  case,  and  re- 
ceive that  attention  which  they  may  be  found  to  deserve. 

But  it  is  useless  to  dwell  on  this  point  ;  for  it  is  evident  to 
every  one  that  the  proposition  is  submitted  only  for  the  pur- 
pose of  furnishing  an  occasion  to  assail  the  conduct  of  the 
majority  of  the  committee  who  made  the  report,  and  of  the 
House  by  whom  it  was  confirmed.  Sir,  it  is  now  notoriously 
a  question  of  crimination.  Having  failed  to  get  in  the  five 
claimants  commissioned  by  the  Governor,  and  having  further 
failed  in  excluding  the  five  who  actually  received  the  majority 
of  the  votes,  gentlemen  turn  round,  in  the  rage  jand  fury  of 
their  disappointment,  and  seek  to  criminate  the  conduct  of  all 
those  by  whom  their  purposes  have  been  frustrated.  Proud  in 
the  consciousness  of  having  done  right,  as  one  member  of  the 
committee,  I  stood  ready  to  meet  any  and  every  charge  that 
might  be  preferred  against  me,  or  any  of  the  honorable  gen- 
tlemen who  had  concurred  in  making  this  report.  I  expected 
those  charges,  if  made  at  all,  would  surely  be  preferred  by 
members  of  the  committee — by  those  whose  situation  enabled 
them  to  form  an  opinion  worth  submitting  to  the  American 
people.  Judge,  then,  Mr.  Speaker,  my  surprise,  when  I  saw 
the  gentleman  from  Maryland  suddenly  thrust  himself  into 
this  controversy,  which  I  had  considered  as  a  sort  of  "  family 
affair,"  and  gravely  prefer  a  long  list  of  charges  against  the 
majority  of  the  committee.  I  do  not  deny  the  gentleman's 
right  to  do  so,  nor  do  I  question  the  sincerity  of  his  declara- 
tion, that,  in  his  opinion,  there  had  been  something  wrong  in 


156  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

the  action  of  the  committee.  But,  sir,  I  now  admonish  him  in 
advance  not  to  be  too  precipate  in  his  conclusions — his  situ- 
ation has  not  been  favorable  to  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
facts ;  and  I  pledge  myself  now  here,  to  the  House,  and  the 
nation,  that  he  has  not  preferred  one  solitary  charge  that  can- 
not be  triumphantly  refuted. 

The  gentleman  told  us  that  he  had  looked  into  our  journals, 
but  was  constrained  to  admit  that  he  had  only  done  so  slightly. 
Now,  sir,  this  very  admission  ought  to  have  suggested  to  him 
to  have  been  more  sparing  in  his  denunciations.  What  did 
the  gentleman  think  he  could  examine  the  contents  of  this 
huge  volume  in  a  single  night  ?  That  he  could  comprehend 
the  profound  legal  learning  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York, 
the  skillful  special  pleading  of  the  gentleman  from  Alabama, 
and  the  willy  tact  of  him  from  Virginia,  on  so  slight  and  so 
hasty  an  inspection  ?  The  gentleman  can  have  no  sort  of 
idea  of  the  profound  mysteries  of  this  new  and  interesting 
work. 

With  no  better  opportunity  than  this  to  obtain  correct  infor- 
mation, the  gentleman  selected  one  portion  of  the  journal  here, 
and  another  there — a  fragment  from  one  place,  and  a  scrap 
from  another,  and  drawing  his  conclusions  from  such  disjointed 
premises,  proclaims  to  the  country  "  that  there  was  something 
wrong  in  the  committee  room."  Sir,  I  expect  there  was  some- 
thing wrong  in  that  committee  room — something  wrong  in  this 
House — something  wrong  before  the  Governor  and  Privy  Coun- 
cil of  New  Jersey.  But  I  stand  here  to  say,  after  a  full  ex- 
amination of  this  case,  that  that  wrong  is  not  on  the  side  of 
those  who  have  maintained  the  rights  of  the  people  of  New 
Jersey  against  its  Governor  and  Council. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  no  gentleman  has  ventured  to 
dispute  the  great  and  controlling  fact  which  constitutes  the 
sum  and  substance  of  this  report,  to  wit :  who  received  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  cast  in  the  New  Jersey  election.  No 
man  has,  because  no  man  could  deny  it.  The  parties  holding 
the  Governor's  commission,  so  far  from  denying  that  their  com- 
petitors did  receive  the  majority  of  votes,  in  their  written 
pleadings  have  substantially  admitted  it.  They  have  so  plain- 
ly admitted  it,  that  the  committee  need  not  have  called  a  sin- 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  157 

gle  witness  in  the  case ;  they  need  not  have  taken  a  solitary 
deposition ;  but,  walking  into  this  hall,  might  have  laid  that 
written  admission  on  your  table,  and  said  to  you :  "  Behold 
the  fact  which  you  required  us  to  ascertain !"  In  one  hour 
after  the  pleadings  of  the  parties  were  closed,  the  committee 
might  have  made  the  report  which  they  have  made,  and  the 
House  have  taken  the  very  action  they  have  taken,  on  the 
parties'  own  admission  :  If  it  be  asked  why  such  a  report  was 
not  made  sooner,  under  sUch  circumstances,  my  answer  isy 
that  those  who  are  now  so  much  abused  as  an  unjust  and  over- 
bearing majority,  never  became  a  majority  until  the  orders  of 
this  House  had  been  given,  commanding  this  report  to  be 
made.  Until  then  we  were  in  a  minority,  incapable  of  con- 
trolling anything.  Our  propositions  were  voted  down  or  stricken 
out,  or  so  altered  and  amended  as  to  make  us  finally  repudiate 
them  ourselves.  This  was  effected  by  the  chairman  generally 
voting  and  acting  with  the  other  party  on  all  questions  involv- 
ing a  report  on  the  state  and  condition  of  the  poll-books.  At 
length,  however,  the  instructions  of  the  House  were  given — 
the  chairman  yielded  obedience  to  them,  and  we  stood  released 
from  that  thraldom  to  which  we  had  been  so  long  subjected. 

[Here  the  morning  hour  having  expired,  the  House  went  into  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  on  the  Treasury  Note  bill.] 


March  18th. 
Mr.  Brown  of  Tennessee  resumed.  I  will  now  proceed,  in 
continuation  of  the  remarks  began  on  yesterday.  I  then  com- 
plained, and  yet  think  I  had  a  right  to  complain,  that  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  committee  had  been  so  harshly  and  unjustly 
condemned  by  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Maryland.  It 
did  seem  to  me,  that  when  this  controversy  had  been  narrowed 
down  to  the  mere  crimination  of  the  majority  whilst  in  the  com- 
mittee room,  that  the  gentleman  should  have  left  it  to  be 


158  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

settled  by  the  members  of  the  committee.  I  advert  to  this 
topic  again,  in  order  to  assure  the  gentleman  that  I  refer  the 
injustice  he  has  done,  which  /  know  he  has  done  to  the  ma- 
jority, more  to  the  want  of  personal  information  than  to  any  dis- 
position to  send  forth  to  the  world  a  groundless  imputation  of 
our  motives  and  conduct.  But  I  may  be  mistaken  as  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  gentleman's  information.  He  may  have  learned  from 
others,  in  whom  he  confides,  much  more  than  he  could  find 
out  from  his  necessarily  slight  and  superficial  inspection  of  our 
journals.  However  this  may  be,  the  gentleman  day  after  day, 
indulged  in  afreedom  and  boldness  of  crimination,  that  demands 
a  prompt  and  decisive  refutation.  Scattered,  as  they  were, 
through  a  very  long  speech,  I  feared  at  one  time,  that  I  should 
not  be  able  to  collect  and  arrange  them.  But  he  was  kind 
enough  yesterday  to  recapitulate,  and  to  condense  them  into  a 
small  compass. 

His  first  charge  was,  that  the  committee  had  failed  to  dis- 
charge its  duties,  as  pointed  out  by  the  standing  rules  of  the 
House  giving  existence  to  the  committee.     The  rule  declares  : 

a  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Committee  of  Elections  to  examine 
and  report  upon  the  certificates  of  election,  or  other  credentials,  of  mem* 
bers  returned  to  serve  in  this  House." 

Now  I  desire  to  know  whether  the  gentleman  from  Mary- 
land did  mean  to  make  the  impression  on  this  House,  that  the 
committee  had  not  performed  that  portion  of  its  duty ;  that 
we  had  not  examined  the  commissions,  and  decided  on  them. 
If  these  were  the  gentleman's  objections  to  our  proceedings,  it 
was  easy  to  show  that  he  was  mistaken. 

[Mr.  Jenifer  here  explained.] 

If  I  understand  the  gentleman's  explanations,  I  have  not 
misapprehended  his  meaning.  I  refer  him  to  the  resolution 
under  which  this  case  was  referred  to  the  committee.  That 
goes  beyond  the  standing  rules,  and  requires  us  to  ascertain 
and  report  who  were  entitled  to  occupy  the  five  vacant  seats 
from  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  This  opened  up  the  whole 
question:  the  commissions,  the  returns,  the  poll  books  ;  in  fact 
every  thing  on  which  the  right  of  membership  depended. 
Now,  sir,  it  has  been  asserted  here,  and  the  public  press  has 
spread  it  all  over  this  country  that  the  committee  paid  but  lit- 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED   ELECTION,  159 

tie  or  no  attention  to  the  Governor's  commissions  ;  that  they 
were  treated  with  no  respect ;  regarded  as  amounting  to  no  sort 
of  evidence  in  the  case  whatever.  This  bold  and  reckless  as- 
sertion has  no  doubt  gone  where  no  refutation  of  mine  can 
ever  overtake  it.  But,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  I  will  send  the 
denial  after  it.  I  will  send  the  journal,  too,  so  soon  as  it  shall 
be  printed,  beneath  whose  withering  rebuke  such  assertions 
cannot  stand.  Every  member  of  that  committee  must  know, 
and  does  know,  that  the  credentials  occupied  a  large  portion 
of  our  attention,  and  were  the  subject  of  anxious  and  serious 
consideration.     I  refer  to    page  79  of  that  journal : 

"  Whereupon  Mr.  Botts  moved  the  following  resolution  : 

"  Resolved,  That  this  committee  will  now  proceed  to  decide  on  the  legal- 
ity and  validity  of  the  commissions  granted  by  the  governor  of  New  Jersey." 

It  being  the  first  question  presented  and  the  whole  testimony 
relating  to  that  branch  of  the  subject  having  been  read.  The 
same  fact  of  these  commissions  having  been  read  and  con- 
sidered is  indelibly  engraved  on  other  pages  of  this  book,  and 
leaves  no  ground  for  cavil  or  dispute.  I  shall  have  frequent 
occasion  to  refer  to  this  book,  and  I  must  beg  pardon  of  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  in  advance,  if  I  should  happen  to 
designate  it  as  "  Botts'  journal."  I  can  hardly  open  it  any 
where,  without  coming  across  his  name,  standing  in  bold  relief, 
in  almost  perpetual  conspicuosity.  Besides  this,  the  gentleman 
was  admittedly  the  chief  architect  of  this  large  superstructure; 
I  mean  the  plainer  and  more  substantial  (if  any  be  substantial) 
parts  of  the  work.  The  ornamental  parts  were  executed  by 
the  gentleman  from  New  York  and  Alabama,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  little  fretwork  by  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut. 

On  the  authority  of  this  record,  then,  I  aver  that  the  commis- 
sions of  the  Governor  were  read — that  they  were  considered — 
were  argued  at  great  length  by  the  parties,  and  a  distinct  vote 
taken  on  their  validity  and  sufficiency.  Yet,  sir,  the  country  has 
been  told,  often  told,  directly  the  reverse.  The  majority  of 
this  committee,  at  this  very  moment,  stand  arraigned  at  the  bar 
of  public  opinion,  for  having  given  to  the  commissions  no  at- 
tention, and  for  having  treated  with  silent  indifference,  if  not 
contempt,  the  broad  seal  of  one  of  the  old  and  gallant  thirteen 


160  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

States  of  the  Union.  On  what  evidence  have  they  been  ar- 
raigned ?  On  none.  Bold  assertion  was  substituted  for  evi- 
dence, and  reckless  invective  supplied  the  place  even  of  pro- 
bability or  presumption.  By  what  evidence  is  the  charge  dis- 
proved ?  By  this  record,  and  by  the  personal  knowledge  of 
every  member  of  the  committee. 

The  gentleman  from  Virginia,  from  the  beginning,  had  enter- 
tained the  opinion  that  nothing  but  the  commissions  could 
entitle  the  gentlemen  to  their  seats.  He  had  avowed  and  en- 
forced that  opinion  in  an  elaborate  argument  on  this  floor,  be- 
fore the  committee  had  ever  sat  upon  the  case.  Was  it  likely, 
therefore,  that  he  would  permit  the  questions  growing  out  of 
those  commissions  to  lie  neglected  and  unnoticed  before  the 
committee?  So  far  from  it,  sir,  the  supremacy  of  the  commis- 
sions seemed  to  fill  all  his  thoughts  ;  it  was  the  beginning  and 
the  end  of  his  whole  judgment  in  the  case. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  come  now  to  the  second  charge  preferred  by 
the  gentleman  from  Maryland  against  the  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee. He  says  that  the  committee  passed  a  resolution  that 
it  would  not  proceed  to  determine  the  question  of  ultimate 
right  between  these  parties  until  the  second  Monday  in  April, 
and  that  this  report  is  in  violation  of  that  resolution.  Well, 
sir,  the  resolution  says  that  the  committee  would  not  decide 
on  the  question  of  ultimate  or  final  right ,  until  the  time  desig- 
nated. Have  we  decided  on  such  right?  Have  we  reported 
on  it?  Not  at  all.  We  have  only  decided  and  reported  on 
the  right  of  present  occupancy  of  the  contested  seats,  whilst 
the  inquiry  as  to  the  ultimate  right  was  going  on.  The  ultimate 
right  depended  on  the  purgation  of  the  polls.  In  New 
Jersey  the  vote  is  given  by  general  ticket ;  the  whole  State 
would  have  to  be  ransacked  in  search  of  illegal  votes,  which 
would  necessarily  require  much  time.  The  question,  therefore, 
arose  who  should  be  the  sitting  members  during  the  period 
allowed  for  collecting  this  testimony  ?  The  report  made  only 
covers  that  point  of  present  occupancy,  and  has  no  reference 
to  the  ultimate  rights  of  the  parties  at  all.  Where,  then,  is 
the  violation  of  this  resolve  of  the  committee  ?  The  gentle- 
man should  have  spared  his  reflections  on  the  committee  on 
another  ground.     He  should  have  remembered  that  even  this 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  161 

report  on  the  present  occupancy  of  the  seats  was  not  made  un- 
til we  received  the  express  and  peremptory  orders  of  this 
House.  When  these  were  given,  all  that  was  left  to  us  was 
the  simple  duty  of  obedience.  Will  the  gentleman  censure  us 
for  that  ?  Would  he  have  had  us  to  set  up  our  own  resolves 
of  a  prior  date,  in  open  defiance  of  the  resolves  and  commands 
of  this  House  ?  Surely  the  gentleman  could  not  have  matured 
this  objection  in  his  own  mind  before  he  preferred  it  against 
the  committee.  But  he  evidently  preferred  this  only  as  induce- 
ment to  his  third  and  most  objectionable  and  groundless  charge 
of  all.  He  says  that  the  committee  having  adopted  that  reso- 
lution and  sent  off  the  claimants  in  search  of  their  testimony, 
it  was  a  violation  of  its  faith  and  solemn  pledges  to  have  made 
this  report  without  giving  them  notice.  True,  he  attempts  to 
draw  a  distinction  in  favor  of  the  committee,  by  regarding  it 
only  as  accessory,  whilst  he  looks  upon  the  House  as  the 
principal  in  the  perpetration  of  this  foul  deed  of  violated  faith. 
Sir,  I  reject  the  distinction.  If  the  charge  were  true,  I  should 
consider  the  magnitude  of  the  offence  as  constituting  all  prin- 
cipals concerned  in  its  commission.  But,  sir,  is  that  charge 
true  ?  The  gentleman  preferred  it  in  a  tone  and  manner  so 
excited,  that  he  found  it  necessary  to  explain  or  apologize  to 
the  House  for  it.  He  illustrated  his  opinion  of  the  conduct  of 
the  committee  and  the  House,  by  referring  to  his  frequent 
agreements  to  pair  off  with  members  of  this  House,  until  a 
specified  time,  and  declared  that  he  should  have  considered 
himself  dishonored  by  a  violation  of  any  such  pledge  or  agree- 
ment. All  this,  sir,  was  reiterated  through  a  speech  of  several 
days'  length — reporters  and  letter  writers  have  sent  the 
charges  to  the  public  press,  and  that  has  distributed  them 
to  every  portion  of  this  continent.  Denunciation  and  asser- 
tion may  achieve  a  temporary  triumph  over  truth  and  evidence. 
But  it  will  be  only  a  temporary  one.  This  record  shall  go 
forth  to  the  world.  It  shall  follow  up  these  high  charges  of  the 
gentleman  from  Maryland,  and  show  to  the  American  people 
how  destitute  of  foundation  they  are.  I  refer  to  page  127, 
where  it  appears  that  the  committee  reserved  the  right  to  make 
a  preliminary  report,  whenever  they  might  think  proper  to  do 
so.  To  page  129,  where  a  proposition  to  that  effect  was  made 
12 


162  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

by  Mr.  Medill.  To  page  147,  where  another  was  made  by  Mr, 
Fisher.  To  page  138,  which  shows  that  the  parties  on  both 
sides  were  then  present,  and  heard  the  discussions,  and  wit- 
nessed the  action  of  the  committee  on  the  proposition.  How, 
then,  can  it  be  said  or  pretended  that  they  left  the  city  without 
notice  that  a  preliminary  report  was  contemplated?  They 
knew  that  the  right  to  make  such  a  report  had  been  always 
reserved.  They  knew  that  every  attempt  to  take  away  that 
right  had  been  defeated.  They  knew  that  making  of  such  a 
report  would  not  interfere  with  their  preparations  on  the  ques- 
tion of  ultimate  right.  They  knew  that  they  would  have  to  go 
home  to  take  the  balance  of  their  testimony,  whether  such  a 
report  was  made  or  not.  They  knew  all  this.  I  say  they  knew 
more.  They  knew  that  a  resolution  instructing  the  committee 
to  make  such  a  report,  had  been  introduced  by  Mr.  Turney  of 
Tennessee,  and  was  then  actually  pending  before  the  House. 
These  facts  are  all  recorded,  and  yet  it  is  pretended  that  they 
retired  to  New  Jersey  in  conscious  security,  confiding  in  the 
honor  and  integrity  of  the  committee,  and  of  this  House  ! 
They  were  deceived  and  taken  by  surprise  !  suprise  about 
what  ?  surprised  by  a  report,  declaring  that  their  opponents 
had  received  a  higher  number  of  votes  than  themselves  in  the 
New  Jersey  election?  That  was  impossible,  for  they  had 
never  denied  the  fact;  they  had  substantially  admitted  it. 
The  records  of  New  Jersey  demonstrated  it  beyond  all  possi- 
bility of  denial. 

Sir,  I  have  no  patience  for  a  further  exposure  of  this  ground- 
less charge  of  broken  pledges  and  violated  faith.  I  pass  to 
another  charge,  equally  unmerited  and  equally  unfounded. 
We  are  charged  with  making  our  report  with  unjust  precipita- 
tion, without  ever  having  examined  the  testimony  referred  to 
us  by  the  House.  That,  in  so  doing,  the  committee  had  prac- 
tised a  fraud  on  this  House,  and  the  nation,  who  had  a  right 
to  expect  that  we  had  examined  all  the  testimony  in  the  case  ; 
others  have  made  the  same  imputation  on  the  proceedings  of 
the  committee,  and  I  will,  therefore,  appeal  again  "  to  the  law 
and  the  testimony ;"  to  the  gentleman's  (from  Virginia) 
own  book;  to  that  favorite  record,  which  he  watched  and 
guarded  with  more  care  than  all  the  other  members  of  the 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  163 

committee  beside.  The  testimony  was  gone  over  twice.  The 
first  time  to  read  the  evidence,  to  hear  the  parties  on  it,  and  to 
note  down  the  objections  made  by  them.  This  may  be  all 
seen  on  the  journal,  from  page  70  to  page  89.  The  second 
time  it  was  gone  over,  was  for  the  purpose  of  deciding  on  the 
various  points  made  by  the  parties,  touching  the  admissibility 
and  competency  of  the  evidence  in  the  case.  Our  proceedings 
for  this  purpose  may  be  seen  from  page  96  to  126.  The  tes- 
timony was  examined  under  the  following  resolution  : 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  now  take  up  the  testimony  which  has  been  re- 
ferred to  this  committee  in  the  New  Jersey  case."  It  was  taken  up  with- 
out any  limitation  or  qualified  purpose  whatsoever.  On  page  70,  we  find 
this  entry  :  "  And  thereupon  the  committee  proceeded  to  the  hearing  of  the 
testimony"  and  "  the  certificates  of  the  Governor  of  New  Jersey  were  read." 
Again  on  page  75,  "  And  the  following  documents  being  the  same  that 
were  referred,  &c,  were  severally  taken  up  and  read.13  On  page  79,  may  be 
found  the  following  entry  : 

"  Mr.  Botts  moved  the  following  resolution  : 

"Resolved,  That  this  committee  will  now  proceed  to  decide  on  the  legality 
and  validity  of  the  commissions  granted,  &c,  it  being  the  first  question 
presented,  and  the  whole  testimony  relating  to  that  branch  of  the  subject 
having  been  read." 

On  page  81:  "  The  paper  No.  13,  was  then  taken  up;    and 
page  73  :  "  And  thereupon  paper  No.   13  was  read"    This 
same  paper,  No.  13,  relating  to  the  polls  at  South  Amboy  was 
again  taken  up  and  rejected,  Mr.  Botts  only,  of  all  the  commit- 
tee, voting  for  it.     It  is  further  shown  by  the  journals   "  that 
their  being  no  further  testimony  before   the  committee,  Mr. 
Botts  moved   the  following  resolution,  &c."     The  different 
portions  of  testimony  were  designated  by  numbers,  and  the  re- 
cord shows  in  relation  to  every  one  of  them,  "  that  they  were 
readP     In  going  over  the  testimony  the  second  time,  we  heard 
the  parties  on  the  various  objections  made  and  noted  down  the 
first  time,  and  decided  whether  each  number  was  admissible 
or  competent  testimony.     Those  depositions  which  were  rejected 
were  laid  aside,  the  parties  avowing  that  they  desired  and  in- 
tended to  take  them  over  again. 

It  is  on  this  ground  that  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  have 
fallen  into  a  great  error.  They  have  contended  that  the  com- 
mittee had  never  heard  or  considered  the  testimony,  except  as 


164  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

it  relates  to  the  question  of  competency.     I  have  already  read 
to  the  House  the  resolution  under  which  it  was  taken  up  and 
considered.     It  contained  no  limitation  of  purpose  whatsoever. 
0.n  the  contrary,  an  attempt  was  made  and  strenuously  insisted 
on,  that  it  should  be  taken  up  and  considered  for  that  pur- 
pose only  ;  but  the  limitation  was  stricken  out  and  the  inqury 
gone  into  unrestricted.     But  it  seems  that  its  sufficiency  was 
never  passed  upon  by  the  committee  in  public  vote,  so  as  to 
constitute   a  hearing  or  consideration  of  the  testimony  in  re- 
ference to  the  making  up  of  a  report.     Was  such  a  thing  ever 
heard  of  in  a  committee  room  as  an  abstract  question  of  suf- 
ficiency ?     Sufficiency  for  what  ?     You  could  never  determine 
that,  until  a  distinct  action  on  the  case  was  proposed,  and  then 
each  member  would  decide  for  himself,  whether  the  testimony 
was  sufficient  to  sustain  such  a  proposition.     Look  to  analogies 
from  the  proceedings  of  our  courts  of  justice.     Our  Judges 
and  Chancellors  decide  and  pass  on  all  questions  of  the  com- 
petency or  admisibility  of  evidence,  raised  by  counsel  in  the 
progress  of  a  cause,  but  you  can  never  learn  their  opinions  on 
its  sufficiency  until  they  pronounce  their  judgment  or  decree  in 
the  case.     That  judgment  or  decree  will  of  course  be  accord- 
ing to  their  opinions  of  the  sufficiency  of  the  testimony  to  sus- 
tain it;  but  no  separate  or  distinct  judgment  is  passed  upon 
it.     It  is  a  silent  process  of  the  mind,  unannounced,  and  only 
to  be  inferred  from  the  nature  of  the  decision  made.     The 
verdict  of  a  jury  on  the  issue  of  guilty  or  not  guilty,  evinces 
the  opinion  of  the  jury  of  the  sufficiency  or  insufficiency  of  the 
evidence  ;  but  it  is  only  in  the  act  of  rendering  that  verdict, 
that  a  jury  could  be   called  on  or  considered   as   expressing 
such  opinions.     So,  sir,  of  the  proceedings  of  this  committee. 
Thi3  testimony  having  been  taken  up   without  restriction — 
having  been  heard  as  competent  in  the  case,  would  be  treas- 
ured up  in  each  member's  mind  until  some  report  or  other 
action  on  it  was  called  for,  and  then  each  would  decide  ( by   a 
silent  process  of  his  own  mind)  for  himself,  whether  the  evi- 
dence was  sufficient  to  sustain  and  justify  such  report  or  other 
action.     Thus  it  is,  sir,  in  the  face  of  this  analogy  from  the 
practice  of  the  courts  and  against  the  very  reason  and  nature 
of  the  case,  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  have  often  exclaimed, 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  165 

Where  is  the  evidence  that  the  sufficiency  of  this  testimony  was 
ever  examined  and  decided  by  the  committee  ?  My  answer  is 
still  given  from  this  record  :  The  vote  on  the  following  resolu- 
tion was  a  decision  on  the  sufficiency  of  the  testimony. 

"  Mr.  Brown  introduced  the  following  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  report  just  read  be  adopted." 

The  vote  on  this  resolution  was  a  test  of  every  member's 
opinion  of  the  sufficiency  of  the  evidence ;  and  the  first  test 
that  could  have  been  applied,  without  a  gross  violation  of  all 
parliamentary  and  judical  practice. 

[The  morning  hour  having  expired,  the  House  went  into  Committee 
of  the  Whole  on  the  Treasury  Note  bill.] 


March  19th. 

Mr.  Brown  of  Tennessee  resumed  as  follows  : 
At  the  close  of  my  remarks  on  yesterday  I  thought  that  I 
had  sufficiently  refuted  the  charge  preferred  against  us  of  not 
having  examined  the  evidence  referred  to  us  by  thi3  House. 
The  gentleman  from  Maryland  now  informs  me  that  his  chief 
complaint  was  and  yet  is  that  we  did  not  open  and  examine 
the  depositions  now  generally  known  "as  the  mysterious 
package."  I  thank  the  gentleman  for  any  suggestion  calculated 
to  abbreviate  our  defence  and  explanations  of  this  report. 
I  think  I  can  satisfy  any  candid  and  impartial  mind,  that  said 
package  was  never  before  the  committee  ;  that  it  was  never 
there  as  evidence  ;  never  there  in  any  form  or  manner,  so  as 
to  enable  us  to  act  on  its  contents.  I  remember  well  when  it 
made  its  first  appearance  in  the  committee  room :  it  was  on 
the  day  when  the  committee  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
ceiving the  report  which  the  chairman  had  been  directed  to 
prepare,  in  obedience  to  the  orders  of  the  House.  We  had 
assembled  for  that  special  and  only  purpose.     True,  we  might 


166  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES, 

have  met  there  at  any  rate.     We  had  met  there  so  often,  that 
it  is  very  likely  that  the  mere  force  of  habit  might  have  taken  us 
there  again.     However  this  may  be,  when  we  were  assembled, 
it  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  re-opening  the  case,  or  of  taking 
any  new  order  in  it,  but  simply  to  ascertain  whether  the  chair- 
man had  prepared  the  report,  agreeably  to  the  directions   of 
the  committee,  given  on  the  Saturday  previous.     When  so  as- 
sembled, and  for  such  purpose  only,  this  mysterious  package 
made  its  appearance.     It  was  brought  there  by  the  gentleman 
from  Connecticut.     It  was  laid  by  him  on  the  table  at  which 
the  chairman  was  sitting.     After  permitting  it  to  lie  there  for 
some  time,  the  gentleman  said  something  that  called  the  at- 
tention of  the  chairman  to  it.     It  was  found  to  be  a  sealed 
package,  directed  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  but  to  the  care 
of  the  chairman  of  the  committee,   and  endorsed,    "  Deposi- 
tions in  the  New  Jersey  case."    Mr.  Smith,  moved,  informally, 
(not  being  in  writing,)  that  the  chairman  should  open  the  pack- 
age.    He  replied  that  the  package  was  not  directed  to  him, 
but  to  the  Speaker,  and  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  break  open 
its  seals,  but  it  being  directed  to  his  care,  he  would  deliver  it 
to  the  Speaker  as  soon  as  his  convenience  would  admit  of  it. 
The  motion,  or  proposition,  not  being  in  writing,  no  vote  of  the 
committee  was  taking  on  it.     The  chairman  then  read  his  re- 
port, and  I  moved  that  it  should  be  adopted ;  and  pending 
that  motion,  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut  moved  that  the 
package  should  be  sent  to  the  Speaker,  to  be  by  him  opened, 
and  an  order  of  reference  be  obtained  from  the  House.  During 
all  this  time,  our  proceedings  were  to  stand  suspended.     It 
might  be  several  days  before  the  order  could  be  obtained  from 
the  House,  and  if  debate  happened  to  spring  upon  it,  which 
was  very  probable,  it  might  even  be  weeks  before  it  was  ob- 
tained ;  and  the  instructions  of  the  House  to  us,  to  make  a 
report  forthwith,  to  be  entirely  disregarded.     The  committee 
refused  to  submit  to  any  further  delays ;  they  confirmed  the  re- 
port, and  ordered  it  to  be  submitted  to  the  House.     It  is  for 
this  they  have  been  so  often  and  so  severely  censured  by  gen- 
tlemen in  the  course  of  this  debate.     It  is  now  said  that  if  the 
committee  had  examined  this  package,  it  would  have  estab- 
lished a  number  of  illegal  votes  sufficient  to  have  prevented  at 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION,  167 

least  one  of  these  gentlemen  from  being  admitted  to  his  seat. 
Sir,  who  ever  pretended  that  this  package  related  to  illegal 
votes,  until  we  heard  it  in  debate  ?  Did  the  gentleman  from 
Connecticut,  who  presented  it,  say  that  it  related  to  illegal 
votes?  Did  he  ever  once  hint  such  an  idea  before  the  com- 
mittee ?  Not  at  all.  There,  we  were  told  on  the  face  of  his 
own  resolution,  that  it  related  to  the  manner  of  holding  the  poll 
at  South  Amboy  ;  here  we  are  informed  that  it  related  to  the 
reception  of  illegal  votes.  Why  this  strange  discrepancy 
between  the  information  given  then,  and  the  complaints  made 
now?     Sir,  I  think  I  can  tell  you  why. 

On  the  question  as  to  the  manner  of  holding  the  South 
Amboy  polls,  gentlemen  do  not  desire  to  make  too  prominent 
an  issue.  These  objections  stand  on  too  narrow  and  techni- 
cal a  foundation.  They  therefore  fly  off  in  pursuit  of  a  new 
idea — a  mere  after- thought — which  either  never  occurred  to 
themselves,  or  was  suppressed  by  them  at  the  time  this  decis- 
ion was  made.  Let  it  be  remembered,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  this 
sealed  package  was  no  part  of  the  old  testimony.  It  had 
been  recently  taken,  whilst  both  parties  were  engaged  in  taking 
testimony  in  New  Jersey.  They  had  been  allowed  until  the 
second  Monday  in  April  for  that  purpose.  When  that  time 
should  expire,  they  were  expected  to  return  to  this  city,  bring- 
ing with  them  the  depositions  which  they  had  taken.  Now,  sir, 
why  was  it  that  this  particular  deposition  had  strayed  off  from 
the  others,  and  been  hurried  to  this  city  by  itself?  Why  had 
it  not  been  sent  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  to  whom  it  was 
directed,  and  as  it  is  expressly  required  to  be  by  the  laws  of 
New  Jersey.  I  have  those  laws  now  before  me,  and  they  ex- 
pressly require  that  they  should  have  been  sent  to  the  Speaker. 
It  was  not  sent  by  the  public  mail.  When  and  by  whom  it 
had  been  sealed  did  not  appear,  and  there  were  no  endorse- 
ments to  guard  its  alteration.  What  is  required  generally  in 
our  courts  of  law  and  equity  in  similar  cases  ?  The  commis- 
sioner must  certify  that  the  deposition  was  sealed  up  without 
having  been  out  of  his  possession,  and  without  alteration. 
If  sent  by  private  conveyance  the  person  conveying  it  must 
certify  on  oath  that  he  received  it  from  the  commissioner,  and 
that  the  same  has  been  unaltered  whilst  in  his  possession. 


168  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

The  committee  did  not  require  all  these  things  to  be  complied 
with.  Indeed,  they  considered  that  they  had  nothing  to  do 
with  all  these  precautions,  because  the  House,  it  was  to  be 
supposed,  would  guard  all  these  points  before  they  opened 
and  referred  all  such  papers  to  the  committee.  But,  sir  many 
of  the  committee  did  look  with  suspicion  on  this  package.  It 
had  not  come  through  accustomed  channels,  and  it  might  be 
to  avoid  the  necessary  scrutiny,  that  it  had  sought  to  come 
into  the  committee,  through  channels  unknown  to  the  laws  of 
New  Jersey,  and  unsanctioned  by  parliamentary  practice. 

I  am  free,  however,  to  state,  that  I  never  permitted  these 
suspicions  to  fasten  on  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut  per- 
sonally, for  having  brought  them  from  his  lodging  to  the  com- 
mittee room  for  delivery  to  the  chairman,  to  whose  care  they 
were  directed.  But,  sir,  they  did  fasten  on  the  package  itself 
— on  its  abrupt  and  precipitate  transmission  to  this  city,  in  ad- 
vance of  all  the  other  depositions,  either  then  or  in  the  course 
of  being  taken  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  These  suspicious 
circumstances,  as  I  regard  them,  no  doubt  influenced  my  mind 
to  some  degree,  in  refusing  to  suspend  our  obedience  to  the 
orders  of  the  House,  and  to  await  the  opening  and  reference 
of  the  package.  But  I  put  that  refusal  on  still  higher  ground. 
I  maintain  that  that  package  was  never  before  us  in  such  con- 
dition as  to  allow  official  action.  It  was  never  before  us  as  a 
committee.  Nothing  could  be  properly  so,  but  what  had  been 
sent  through  the  House  and  by  the  House.  We  had,  therefore, 
no  right  to  take  action  on  the  paper.  That  action  depended 
solely  on  the  chairman,  into  whose  hands  it  came,  which  the 
committee  had  no  right  to  accelerate  or  retard,  by  any  order 
on  the  subject.  The  gentleman  from  Maryland,  however,  as- 
sumes the  ground  that  the  chairman  had  the  right  to  break 
the  seal,  and  to  open  the  package,  without  presentation  to  the 
Speaker  or  any  order  of  the  House.  The  Speaker,  however, 
was  of  a  different  opinion.  Every  member  of  the  committee 
present  thought  differently,  except  the  gentlemen  from  New 
York  and  Connecticut.  The  gentleman  from  Alabama  has 
no  recollection  of  hearing  the  proposition  made,  that  the  chair- 
man should  open  it ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  he  tells  you  if  he 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED   ELECTION,  169 

had  heard  it,  he  would  not  have   sanctioned  the  idea  for  one 
moment. 

[Mr.  Crabb  here  rose  and  submitted  some  remarks  of  explanation.] 

Mr.  Brown  was  glad  that  the  gentleman  from  Alabama 
had  submitted  his  remarks :  he  wanted  his  position  to  be  per- 
fectly understood,  for  it  was  one  on  which  he  did  not  intend  to 
bestow  the  slightest  censure. 

On  the  question  of  sending  this  package  to  the  Speaker,  and 
waiting  for  its  reference  and  return,  only  two  of  the  minority 
present  voted  for  it,  the  gentleman  from  Alabama  not  being 
one  of  them. 

[Mr.  Crabb  again  explained,  and  said  that  his  vote  against  sending  it, 
was  owing  to  certain  recitals  on  the  resolution  of  the  gentleman  from  Con- 
necticut, which  he  did  not  think  correct  in  point  of  fact.] 

Mr.  Brown  then  read  the  resolution,  and  the  vote  taken  on 
it,  and  said  that  he  meant  to  furnish  the  House  with  the  pre- 
cise facts  as  they  had  existed,  but  did  not  doubt  the  motive 
which  the  gentleman  had  stated,  controlled  his  vote  on  that 
occasion. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  been  much  astonished  at  the  opinions 
which  the  gentlemen  from  Maryland  advanced  on  this  part 
of  the  case.  I  understand  he  is  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
bar,  and  it  is  with  extreme  reluctance  that  I  would  undertake 
to  question  any  of  his  legal  opinions.  Still  I  beg  leave  to  sub- 
mit to  him  a  few,  very  few,  cases  for  his  solution.  Suppose  an 
ordinary  letter  to  be  directed  to  A.  B.  to  the  care  of  C.  D.;  or 
suppose  a  letter  to  be  written  to  the  president  of  the  Bank  of 
Maryland,  to  the  care  of  E.  F.,  one  of  its  stockholders  or  di- 
rectors j  or  to  the  clerk  and  master  in  chancery  at  A.,  to  the 
care  of  the  sheriff  attendant  on  the  court.  Now  does  the  gentle- 
man mean  to  advance  the  opinion,  that  in  all  these  cases,  the 
persons  to  whose  care  they  were  directed  could  lawfully  break 
the  seals,  and  publish  their  contents  ?  The  gentleman's  argu- 
ment seemed  to  affirm  that  they  could,  and  opens  up  to  my 
mind  new  principles  of  law,  which  have  heretofore  eluded  my 
research. 

I  put  to  the  gentleman,  in  becoming  deference,  another  ques- 
tion; whether,  if  he  be  right  on  the  general  principles  of  the 


170  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

science,  he  may  not  possibly  be  mistaken  in  his  opinions  on 
this  point,  under  the  special  provisions  of  the  law  of  New 
Jersey.  That  law,  as  I  have  before  remarked,  expressly  re- 
quires these  depositions  to  be  addressed  and  forwarded  to  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  How  comes  it, 
then,  that  any  one  else  can  interrupt  them — stop  their  progress 
towards  the  Speaker,  to  whom  they  are  required  to  go — break 
open  the  seals,  make  use  of  their  contents,  and  still  invoke  the 
law  to  sanctify  and  approve  the  deed?  Sir,  all  this  may  be  so, 
but  I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that  it  challenges  a  very  high 
order  of  credulity  to  believe  it.  At  all  events,  the  committee 
did  not  understand  either  the  general  law  or  the  statute  of 
New  Jersey  in  that  way.  They  found  this  package  not  in  your 
hands,  but  in  the  hands  of  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut; 
not  on  your  table,  but  on  theirs ;  not  coming  direct  by  the 
public  mail,  but  wandering  about  first  in  one  man's  hands, 
and  then  in  another's,  covered  by  another  envelope,  which  is 
torn  away  from  it ;  and  having,  in  fact,  none  of  those  safe- 
guards which  the  law  throws  around  depositions  in  analogous 
cases.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  committee  determined 
to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  package  for  the  present,  but  to 
let  it  reach  its  ultimate  destination,  the  Speaker's  hands,  by 
him  to  be  laid  before  the  House,  and  by  the  House  be  referred 
to  the  committee,  in  due  and  regular  form.  It  is  now  before 
us,  and  will  take  its  place  with  the  other  depositions  ;  will  be 
considered  when  they  are  considered ;  and  be  allowed  its  due 
weight  in  the  final  report. 

Thus  far,  Mr.  Speaker,  most  of  what  I  have  said  has  been  in 
justification  of  the  conduct  of  the  committee.  I  wish  now  to 
say  something  in  vindication  of  the  action  of  the  House  in 
requiring  this  report  to  be  made.  The  very  terms  of  the  reso- 
lution referring  this  case  to  the  committee,  show  that  it  was  the 
intention  of  the  House  not  to  leave  New  Jersey  long  without 
her  full  representation  on  this  floor.  Present  occupancy  of 
her  vacant  seats  until  the  final  rights  of  the  parties  could  be 
ascertained,  was  evidently  intended.  It  was  expected  that  a 
report  on  the  present  right  could  have  been  made  in  a  few  days, 
or  weeks,  at  farthest.  This  right  depended  either  on  the  com- 
missions or  the  poll  books,  which,  it  was  thought  by  the  House, 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION,  171 

could  soon  be  determined.  The  final  right  depended  on  the 
purgation  of  the  polls  in  all  the  townships  of  the  State  ;  and  it 
was  known  that  it  would  take  much  time  and  trouble  to  perform 
it.  These  were  the  known  views  of  the  House.  Well,  sir,  the 
case  had  been  before  us  for  about  two  months,  instead  of  as 
many  weeks.  Questions  of  great  importance  to  the  country 
were  daily  arising,  and  New  Jersey  stood  deprived  of  her  full 
number  of  Representatives  in  this  hall.  The  Governor  of  that 
State  seized  on  the  occasion  to  appeal  to  the  other  States  of  the 
Union.  The  impression  was  spreading  far  and  wide,  that  too 
much  delay  was  taking  place  in  the  investigation.  During  all 
this  time,  not  one  word  was  heard  from  the  committee.  True, 
we  were  seen  reparing  early  and  retiring  late  from  the  scene  of 
our  labors.  Mght  after  night  the  burning  lamps  of  our  com- 
mittee room  attested  our  industry  and  devotion  to  business ; 
but  still  no  signs  or  tokens  of  a  report  being  made  could  be  dis- 
covered. Almost  every  member  was  asking  us  when? 
The  vacant  and  unoccupied  seats  of  New  Jersey  as  we 
passed  seemed  ready  to  ask  us  when  ?  The  country  at 
large  was  loudly  addressing  to  us  the  same  question. 
But  still  no  solitary  response  could  be  obtained.  Even  now 
that  we  have  reported,  I  can  often  detect  a  sort  of  inquisitive 
curiosity  to  know  what  we  have  been  about  during  all  this 
time.  I  will  tell  you,  sir.  We  have  been  making  this  great 
book — I  beg  pardon  for  having  almost  said  "  Bott's  book" — on 
the  commissions  of  the  Governor;  on  the  records  of  his  pro- 
ceedings; in  making  a  computation  of  the  votes  on  the  certifi- 
cate of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  written  pleadings  cf 
the  party.  We  could  and  ought  to  have  made  this  report  in 
one-fourth  part  of  that  time,  which  we  have  wasted  on  tech- 
nical trifles,  and  in  a  poor,  miserable,  and  (as  I  fear  the  coun- 
try will  say)  contemptible  system  of  special  pleading. 

It  was  after  such  delays  as  this,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  uni- 
versal complaint  of  that  delay  which  I  have  mentioned,  that 
my  honorable  colleague,  Mr.  Cave  Johnson,  submitted  his  res- 
olution of  instructions  to  report  forthwith  who  received  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  at  the  election  of  New  Jersey,  and 
all  the  evidence  appertaining  to  that  fact.  Sir,  I  shall  never 
forget  the  sensations  evidently  produced  on  a  portion  of  the 


172  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

committee  by  the  introduction  of  that  resolution.      The  pride 
of  the  gentleman  from  Alabama,  and  of  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  revolted  at  the  word   "  forthwith  !"     They  revolted 
at  the  very  idea  of  instant  compulsion.     The  gentleman  from 
Connecticut  did  not  care  so  much  about  the  word  "  forthwith ;" 
but  seemed  to  shrink  with  horror  from  the   intrusion  of  the 
chairman   of  Military  Affairs!       In  touching  and  eloquent 
strains,  he  implored  protection  from  that  man  of  war  "  with 
glittering  helmet,  and  with  nodding  plume  !"     That  whole  de- 
bate went  off  on  a  collateral  and  false  issue,  and  was  evidently 
intended  to  direct  the  public  mind  away  from  the  true  merits  of 
the  proposition.     It  was  said  to  be  indelicate,  and  even  insul- 
ting to  the  committee,  to  call  on  them  for  a  report,  which  the 
House  and  the  country  had  been  expecting  for  many  weeks, 
with  breathless  anxiety  !     The  House  was,  however,  resolved 
to  wait  no  longer,  and  after  amending,  adopted  the  resolution. 
This  amendment  consisted  in  the  insertion  of  the  word  "  law- 
ful," before  the  word  "votes."     It  was  proposed  by  the  gentle- 
man from  New  York,  [Mr.  Fillmore,]  who  was  in  full  practice 
on  similar  motions  in  the  committee  room.     There,  whenever 
it  was  proposed  to  ascertain  "  who  received  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  votes  polled  at  the  New  Jersey  election,"  so  as  to  be  able 
to  report  that  fact  to  the  House,  the  gentleman,  or  some  other 
member  of  the  minority,  would  move  to  insert  the  word  lawful, 
so  as  to  throw  us  off  from  the  poll  books  as  they  stood  at  the 
close  of  the  election,  into  the  purgation  of  the  polls.      They 
stood  on  the  commissions  as  the  foundation  of  right  to  a  seat. 
We  stood  on  the  poll  books  that  contradicted  the  commissions, 
and  clearly  showed  that  five  other  persons  received  the  votes 
of  the  majority.     Now,  sir,  the  fair  mode  of  proceeding  would 
have  been  to  take  a  vote  on  the  validity  and  sufficiency  of  the 
commissions,  and  if  the  majority  of  the  committee  of  the  House 
was  found  in  favor  of  Messrs.  Aycrigg  and  Co.  to  place  them 
in  their  seats  ;  and  if  no  such  majority  was   found,  then,  to 
have  takSn  a  vote  on  the  validity  and  sufficiency  of  the  poll 
books,  and  to  have  placed  Messrs.  Dickerson,  Vroom,  etc.,  in 
their  seats,  if  a  majority  was  found  in  their  favor,  I  repeat,  sir, 
would  have  been   the  fair,  plainsailing  mode  of  proceeding. 
But  it  has  been  denied  to  us  throughout  this  whole  proceeding. 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELEC  TION.  H3 

We  have  been,  from  time  to  time,  forced  off  from  an  examina- 
tion and  report  on  the  poll  books,  showing  in  fact  who  were 
elected  by  the  people,  and  compelled  to  report  on  presumptions, 
instead  of  facts,  or  give  the  commissioned  gentleman  another 
chance,  by  searching  over  the  State  of  New  Jersey  for  illegal 
votes.  Sir,  the  motion  made  here  was  apart  of  the  same  sys- 
tem. But  the  gentleman  did  not  remember  that  the  word 
lawful  could  have  none  of  its  magic  influence  on  this  resolu- 
tion, where  there  were  so  many  other  expressions  to  command 
and  control  it.  We  were  ordered  to  report  forthwith,  but  not  so 
as  to  stop  or  delay  our  investigations  into  the  ballot  box.  So  long 
as  these  expressions  continued  in  the  resolutions  of  instruction, 
the  word  lawful  could  be  made  to  apply  only  to  those  votes 
cast  in  the  election,  which  the  law  and  the  rules  of  evidence 
declare  lawful,  until  the  contrary  be  shown  by  evidence.  In 
his  zeal  and  precipancy,  and  mislead  by  the  effect  of  the  same 
word  in  dissimilar  propositions  in  the  committee  room,  the 
gentleman  from  New  York  failed  to  follow  up  his  motion  to 
insert  the  word  lawful,  by  other  motions  to  strike  out  the  word 
forthwith,  and  the  whole  proviso  at  the  close  of  the  resolution. 
This  failure  was  fatal  to  his  object.  It  lost  every  advantage 
which  he  was  seeking  to  acquire.  The  gentleman  and  his 
friends  soon  perceived  it,  when  they  found  the  whole  Demo- 
cratic party  of  the  House  still  voting  for  the  instructions,  not- 
withstanding the  insertion  of  that  word.  Thereupon  the  whole 
Whig  party,  with  no  remembered  exception,  voted  against  it, 
in  the  face  of  their  own  favorite  word  "  lawful."  This,  sir,  is 
the  resolution,  as  finally  adopted : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Committee  of  Elections  be  authorized  to  report  to 
this  House  such  papers  and  such  of  their  proceedings  as  they  may  desire 
to  have  printed  by  order  of  the  House  and  that  they  be  instructed  also  to 
report  forthwith  which  five  of  the  ten  indviduals  claiming  seats  from  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  received  the  greatest  number  of  lawful  votes  from  the 
whole  State  for  Representatives  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  at  the 
election  of  1838  in  said  State,  with  all  the  evidence  of  that  fact  in  their 
possession  :  Provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  so  construed 
as  to  prevent  or  delay  the  action  of  said  committee  in  taking  testimony,  and 
deciding  the  said  case  on  the  merits  of  the  election." 

The  gentleman  from  Maryland,  as  the  minority  of  the  com- 
mittee, have  complained  much  of  the  construction  which  was 


174  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

given  to  this  resolution  by  the  majority.  They  have  industri- 
ously sought  to  make  the  impression  that  it  was  resolved  to 
put  Messrs.  Dickinson  and  Vroom  and  their  associates  into 
their  seats,  right  or  wrong,  on  legal  or  illegal  votes.  Sir,  notic- 
ing can  be  further  from  the  truth.  We  have  not  counted  one 
single  vote  for  them  which  has  not  been  passed  upon  and  de- 
cided to  be  legal  by  the  constituted  authorities  of  New  Jersey, 
the  judges  and  inspectors  of  elections.  They  have  solmny 
adjudged  every  vote  to  be  lawful  before  we  have  allowed  it. 
The  law  takes  their  judgment  as  binding,  until  the  country  shall 
be  shown  by  evidence  taken  in  the  case.  Not  only  did  the 
majority  decide  that  the  votes  received  should  be  presumed  and 
taken  as  lawful  votes,  but  every  member  of  the  minority  de- 
cided so  with  us.  They  voted  without  exception  for  the  follow- 
ing resolution: 

"  Resolved,  That  all  votes  received  by  authorized  officers  acting  in  con- 
formity with  the  laws,  are  prima  facie  legal." 

Now,  sir,  we  have  not  counted  one  solitary  vote  which  was 
not  of  that  description.  To  escape  from  this,  we  are  told  on 
the  other  side  that  the  word  "  lawful"  was  not  used  by  the 
House  in  this  prima  facie  or  presumptive  sense,  but  referred 
to  the  final  and  absolute  lawfulness  which  might  be  established 
by  the  evidence.  Sir,  how  can  this  be  so,  when  the  House 
knew  that  the  testimony  had  not  yet  been  taken — when  the 
House  knew  that  the  parties  had  just  left  the  city  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  it — when  the  House  knew  that  two  months  had 
been  allowed  them  for  that  purpose  ?  How  then  could  they 
have  meant  to  call  for  a  report  to  be  made  forthwith,  on  testi- 
mony not  in  existence,  and  which  would  not  be  in  our  posses- 
sion before  the  second  Monday  of  April  next.  They  must  have 
meant  that  we  should  report  without  delay  on  the  lawful  votes, 
as  they  stood  as  such  on  the  records  of  New  Jersey  and  the 
testimony  before  the  committee — on  the  votes  which  then  stood 
as  lawful,  according  to  the  laws  of  New  Jersey,  and  not  on 
the  votes  which  might  hereafter  be  found  legal  when  the  taking 
of  the  testimony  was  completed.  The  House  was  demanding 
the  report  only  to  settle  the  right  of  present  occupancy,  as  to  put 
one  party  or  the  other  in  their  seats,  until  the  final  right  should 


ON  THE  NEW  JERSEY  CONTESTED  ELECTION.  175 

be  determined.  They  therefore  called  for  a  report  on  the  evi- 
dence as  it  then  stood,  not  on  the  evidence  as  it  might  hereafter 
appear.  This  is  put  beyond  all  question  by  the  proviso  which 
expressly  declares  that  the  inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the  elec- 
tion should  not  be  suspended  or  prevented. 

The  next  day  the  committee  met.  They  settled  down  on  the 
construction  of  the  resolution  for  which  I  have  contended, 
and  ordered  the  report  to  be  prepared  by  the  Tuesday  follow- 
ing (that  being  Saturday.)  On  Tuesday  the  report,  as  prepared 
by  the  chairman,  was  adopted  and  ordered  to  be  presented  to 
the  House.  It  was  presented,  resisted,  debated;  but  was 
finally  confirmed,  and  five  of  the  claimants  admitted  to  their 
seats  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  I  again  affirm  that 
every  vote  counted  in  making  out  that  report,  stood,  at  the  time 
it  was  counted,  as  a  good  and  lawful  vote,  according  to  the 
rules  of  evidence  and  the  laws  of  the  land.  But  it  is  true,  that 
in  making  out  the  report  the  committee  did  not,  and  could  not, 
know  but  what  some  of  the  votes  counted  might  hereafter  be 
proved  to  be  illegal  when  the  parties  returned,  on  the  2d  Mon- 
day in  April,  from  taking  their  testimoy  in  New  Jersey.  We 
were  not  gifted  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy  so  as  to  know  how 
that  might  be,  and  the  House  called  for  present  and  immediate 
action,  and  did  not  choose  to  wait  the  developments  of  the 
future.  But  whatever  doubt  might  have  existed  before  as  to 
the  correctness  of  our  construction  of  its  orders,  they  must  be 
removed  by  the  subsequent  action  of  the  House.  When  the 
report  came,  it  was  resisted  on  the  express  ground  that  we  had 
misconstrued  the  resolution  of  instruction.  The  question  was 
debated  and  considered  by  the  House.  Surely  the  gentlemen 
do  not  mean  to  deny  that  the  House  understood  its  own  orders. 
Well,  what  was  its  decision?  It  sanctioned  our  construction 
by  confirming  our  report.  Before  the  House  we  were  charged 
with  stupidity  and  mental  delusion;  now  nothing  can  save  the 
House  itself  from  the  same  unmerited  denunciation.  What, 
sir,  after  all,  have  we  done  ?  Nothing  but  what  the  Governor 
of  New  Jersey  himself  declared  we  ought  and  should  do. 
Hear  his  declarations,  made  at  the  time  when  he  was  cleaving 
down  the  rights  of  his  own  people.  "  But  it  will  be  asked,  with 
force  and  propriety,  is  a  candidate  to  lose  his  seat  in  Congress 


1 76  CONGRESSIONAL  SPEECHES. 

because  a  country  clerk  does  not  make  a  return  of  the  votes  ? 
Certainly  not.      If,    through  inadvertance  or  by  design,  any 
votes  have  not  been  returned  by  the  clerk,  it  is  in  the  power  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  in  their  discretion,  to  allow  these 
votes,  and  give  the  seat  to  the  person  who,  with  these  votes, 
may  be  elected."     Well,  what  have  we  done?     The  votes  of 
Millville  and  South  Amboy  had  not  been  returned,  or  rather 
had  not  been  counted.     The  committee  and  the  House  have 
counted  them,  and  have  given  the  seats  accordingly.    Precisely 
what  Governor  Pennington  then  said  we  ought  and  would  do. 
Let  me  tell  gentlemen  we  have  not  only  done  this,  but  we  have 
done  more.     We  have  done  what  Governor  Pennington  ought 
then  to  have  done,  but  which  he  did  not  and  would  not  do. 
He  knew  that  the  clerks  of  Middlesex  and  Amboy  had  not 
sent  up  all  the  returns  of  all  the  townships  of  their  respective 
counties,  and  yet  he  would  not  send  an  express  after  them   as 
the  law  directed.     He  knew  that  the  votes  of  Millville    and 
South  Amboy  had  not  been  included  in  their  computations, 
and  if  included  would  have  changed  the  result.     He  knew,  in 
other  words,  that  Messrs.  Aycrigg  &  Co.  had  not  received  "the 
highest  number  of  votes  "  as  required  by  the  laws  of  New  Jer- 
sey, yet  he  gave  them  commissions  at  declaring  them  "  to 
have  been  elected,"  contrary  to  the  truth  of  the  case  and  the 
laws  of  the  State.     In  the  commissions  which  he  gave,  he  could 
not  and  dare  not  say,  that  those  to  whom  they  had  been  given, 
had  received  the  highest  number  of  votes.     He  therefore  intro- 
duced the  word  "  elected,"  not  known  in  the  laws  of  New  Jer- 
sey.    Who  is  "  elected,"  is  a  compound,  and  often  a  difficult 
question  to  be  determined,  and  is  left  under  the  Constitution  in 
such  a  case,  as  this,  to  be  decided  by  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives :    But "  who  received  the  highest  number  of  votes  "  in  an 
election,  is    a  simple   matter   of    arithmetical    computation, 
and   has  been  entrusted  to  the  Eexcutive  of  New  Jersey  as 
the   returning  officer.     He  has  made  a  return,  at  open  war 
with  the  facts  of  the  case,  and   has    only   offered  to  an  in- 
sulted  people   the   poor    consolation    that    the  outrage    he 
was   committing  was  within   the   correcting  powers  of   this 
House.     We  have  corrected  them.     We  have  restored  to  the 
people  of  New  Jersey  the  great  and  fundamental  right  of  self- 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  193 

very  high — some  4  per  cent. — some  16 — some  46-some  19,  &c, 
according  to  qualities  and  descriptions.  Would  Mr.  Foster  or 
his  party  assist  us  ?  No,  neither  he  nor  they  would  do  so. 
His  next  article  is  sugar.  The  whigs  taxed  that  66  per  cent. — 
we  tried  to  reduce  that  14  per  cent.,  and  Mr.  Foster  and  his 
party  would  not  assist  us  even  in  doing  that  much.  Mr.  Fos- 
ter merely  adds  "  almost  every  article  we  use  or  consume" — 
none  of  which,  now  recollected,  would  he  then  or  now  consent 
to  reduce  !  And  yet  we  are  told  the  whig  party  now  stand 
where  they  have  always  stood  !  I  know  well  what  Mr.  Foster 
will  say  to  this  also.  He  will  say  General  Jackson  changed 
from  the  time  he  wrote  his  Coleman  letter.  I  do  not  think  my 
competitor  (said  Mr.  Brown)  ever  understood  that  letter ;  but 
granting,  for  argument  sake,  that  General  Jackson  did  undergo 
some  change  from  1824  to  1832,  did  he  not  change  with  him 
and  stand  by  him  on  the  same  platform  with  Judge  White, 
Mr.  Bell,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  Whig  party  ?  I  have  proven 
that  he  did;  and  so  it  follows  if  General  Jackson  changed 
once,  (which  I  do  not  admit)  Mr.  Foster  and  his  party  have 
changed  twice  to  his  once.  Will  he  put  up  with  this  poor  con- 
solation? He  may  say  others  have  changed.  We  are  not 
talking  about  others — I  have  nothing  to  do  with  others  in  this 
contest ;  I  have  only  to  do  with  the  embodiment  of  the  whig 
party  in  Tennessee  ;  and  if  he  and  they  have  changed,  my 
proof  is  full  and  this  issue  is  settled.  I  care  not  what  he  says 
about  Martin  Luther,  the  Pope  of  Rome  granting  absolution 
to  the  Irishman  for  a  stack  of  hay  which  he  intended  to 
steal  but  had  not  yet  stolen.  I  care  nothing  for  all  such  things. 
I  hold  this  contested  issue  to  be  settled  by  the  proofs,  and  that 
neither  the  whig  party  nor  their  standard  bearer  can  sustain 
that  claim  to  consistency  in  politics  which  they  have  challeng- 
ed the  democracy  to  refute. 

Mr.  Foster  talks  much  about  the  home  market.  Mr.  Bell 
long  since  overturned  all  he  says  on  that  subject.  Does 
he  not  see  likewise  that  in  trying  to  build  up  a  home 
market  in  the  north,  by  a  high  tariff  which  cripples  the  south 
and  forces  them  to  raise  their  own  provisions,  that  he  strikes 
down  and  destroys  a  home  market  five  times  as  good  to  us  as 
the  northern  one  can  be  ?  He  talks  of  shutting  up  the  fac- 
14 


194  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

tories  and  closing  the  doors  of  the  workshops  of  our  mechanics. 
Who  proposes  to  do  this  ?  No  democrat  in  America.  All  we 
ask  is  to  lower  the  tariff  so  as  to  equalize  the  burdens  of  all 
classes — lessening,  it  is  true,  to  some  extent,  the  profits  of  the 
manufacturer,  not  the  ordinary  mechanic,  but  increasing  those 
of  the  farmer,  planter,  and  the  stock-raiser. 

Mr.  Brown  said  he  had  hurried  over  these  different  subjects, 
in  order  that  he  might  have  something  to  say  on  the  two  great 
questions  of  Texas  and  Oregon.  Day  after  day  were  wasted 
by  his  competitor  in  the  discussion  of  subjects  whose  impor- 
tance compared  to  these  did  not  weigh  as  the  dust  in  the 
balance.  They  were  attracting  the  attention  of  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  The  kings  of  the  earth  were  in  daily  consul- 
tation with  all  their  high  Minister  of  State  in  relation  to  them. 
The  news  from  this  young  republic  filled  them  with  astonish- 
ment and  terror.  Her  light  was  beginning  to  shine  too 
brightly,  her  power  was  increasing  too  rapidly,  and  the  moral 
influence  of  her  march  to  prosperity  and  greatness  was  begin- 
ning to  spread  among  the  immense  masses  of  the  old  World, 
until  every  sceptre  is  weakening  and  every  throne  tottering 
under  it.  At  first  we  started  with  only  thirteen  States,  and 
although  every  few  years  they  saw  some  solitary  additions  to 
the  number,  yet  they  still  looked  upon  us  with  unconcern  and 
indifference.  During  the  last  winter,  however,  they  saw  two 
States  admitted  at  once,  Iowa  and  Florida,  making  twenty- 
eight  States  of  this  glorious  confederacy.  They  saw  at  the 
same  time  the  admission  of  Texas,  covering  the  whole  of  the 
important  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Instantly  they  took 
the  alarm,  and  have  resorted,  and  are  yet  resorting,  to  all  the 
schemes  and  devices  in  their  power  to  prevent  its  annexation. 
Is  it  not  strange,  my  fellow-citizens,  said  Mr.  B.,  that  any  por- 
tion of  our  countrymen  should  sympathize  and  unite  with 
foreign  nations  in  wishing  to  check  the  growth  and  to  arrest 
our  onward  march  to  greatness  and  prosperity  ?  There  was 
a  time  when  it  was  not  so.  There  was  a  time  when  we  were 
all  united  like  a  band  of  brothers  in  favor  of  acquiring  that 
fine  and  noble  country.  Tennessee  led  off  in  the  great  work. 
Her  heroic  sons  had  moistened  the  soil  of  Texas  with  their 
blood,  and  the  bones  of  many  of  them  lay  bleaching  on  her 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS,  195 

battle  fields.  In  1838  her  Legislature,  with  no  division  of 
opinion,  instructed  her  Senators  to  do  all  in  their  power  in  or- 
der to  procure  her  admission.  In  1842,  with  equal  unanimity 
through  the  same  organ,  she  made  known  her  wish  for  the  suc- 
cessful accomplishment  of  the  great  object.  In  the  mean 
time,  her  greatest  and  wisest  citizen — he  who  having  filled 
the  measure  of  his  country's  glory,  now  rest  with  all  the  just 
made  perfect  in  heaven,  was  directing  his  best  efforts  to  rouse 
up  President  Tyler  to  make  the  attempt  by  negotiation  and 
treaty.  His  efforts  were  successful — John  Tyler,  with  the 
sanction  of  his  great  name,  was  encouraged  to  make  the  at- 
tempt. The  treaty  was  made.  It  was  submitted  to  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States.  To  a  Senate  that  hated  John 
Tyler — to  a  Senate  that  hated  Andrew  Jackson — to  a  Senate 
that  hated  John  C.  Calhoun — to  a  Senate  that  loved  party 
more  than  country.  It  was  rejected.  Let  me  read  what  my 
competitor  said  were  his  reasons  for  rejecting  it. 

"  I  object,"  said  he,  "  to  the  time  and  manner  of  getting  up 
this  treaty,  and  to  the  selfish  and  ambitious  motives  which  I 
faithfully  believe  actuated  the  President  in  bringing  forward 
and  pursuing  this  negotiation."  What,  object  to  the  time  ! 
When  should  it  rather  be  done,  than  when  it  can  be  done  ? 
Beside,  those  who  instructed  you,  determined  the  time.  They 
said  the  right  time  had  come  now — as  soon  as  possible.  What 
right  had  you  to  overrule  their  determination  ?  But  you  ob- 
ject to  the  selfish  and  ambitious  motives  of  John  Tyler  in 
bringing  it  forward.  What  had  his  motives  to  do  with  your  obedi- 
ence to  instructions  ?  The  deed  was  good — you  admitted  that 
it  was  good,  and  yet  you  refused  to  confirm  it  because  John 
Tyler  had  done  it.  Had  Lucifer  done  it — you  should  have 
confirmed  it.  The  treaty  was  rejected  in  the  spring.  The 
Presidential  canvass  was  opened  in  the  summer.  My  com- 
petitor and  all  his  friends  threw  themselves  into  the  canvass 
and  appeal  to  you  to  sustain  Mr.  Foster  in  his  vote.  What 
did  they  tell  you  ?  Do  not  annex  Texas — if  youdo,  you  will 
bring  a  stain  of  everlasting  dishonor  on  your  country.  Do 
not  annex  Texas — if  you  do  you  will  involve  your  country  in  a 
war  so  unjust,  that  Heaven  itself  will  frown  upon  you  and  take 
sides  with  Mexico.      Do  not  annex  Texas — if  you  do,  you 


196  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

will  dissolve  forever  this  bright  and  glorious  Union  !  By  such 
fervid,  but  as  it  now  seems  unfounded  appeals,  many  a  good 
man,  I  might  say  thousands  of  them  turned,  away  from  Texas. 
Tore  from  their  bosoms  all  the  natural  sympathies  of  their 
hearts,  and  resolved  to  leave  a  brave  and  gallant  people  to  their 
bloody  fate.  The  kings  of  the  earth  were  in  conspiracy  against 
them.  The  tyrant  of  Mexico  was  mustering  his  army,  and 
had  sent  out  his  orders  in  advance  to  kill  and  murder  every 
living  creature  found  in  the  country.  The  mother  fleeing 
with  her  infant  in  her  arms,  was  to  be  shot  down,  and  tottering 
old  age,  unable  to  flee,  was  to  receive  the  same  savage  fate. 
Little  did  our  people  think  that  they  were  called  upon  to  do 
all  this  only  to  aid  in  the  election  of  Henry  Clay  to  the  Presi- 
dency. But  it  was  even  so.  My  competitor  now  often  states 
that  when  he  first  saw  this  Texas  question  it  appeared  like  a 
dark  cloud  on  the  horizon,  and  that  he  told  his  friends  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it  until  they  saw  who  was  to  be  President. 
Treasure  these  words  up  in  your  memory,  carry  them  home 
with  you  to  your  neighbors.  They  shed  a  flood  of  light  on 
this  whole  subject — "  have  nothing  to  do  with  it  until  you  see 
who  is  to  be  President."  Well,  the  election  was  over.  The 
flag  of  Texas  waived  in  triumph  over  the  nation — but,  alas,  it 
could  have  no  triumph  in  Tennessee  !  By  a  majority  of  113 
it  was  made  to  trail  in  the  dust.  The  flag  of  San  Jacinto — the 
flag  under  which  Houston  fought  and  under  which  Crocket 
fell !  The  flag,  I  repeat,  was  made  to  trail  in  the  dust ;  but, 
thank  God,  only  by  113 ;  and  even  these  were  obtained  by  pre- 
tended and  cunning  and  heartless  devices. 

Do  you  ask  me  for  proof  that  it  was  accomplished  by  such 
devices  ?  My  competitor  himself  has  said  so.  He  said  so,  by 
offering  resolutions  of  annexation  himself,  so  soon  as  Congress 
met.  What  a  reflection  was  that  on  Mr.  Bell,  on  Gov.  Jones, 
on  Mr.  Henry,  on  Mr.  Neil  S.  Brown,  and  Gen.  Heiskell — on 
his  own  brother  Senator  setting  every  day  by  his  side,  uncon- 
sulted  as  I  understand  on  this  great  movement — right  in  the 
face  of  all  that  these  gentlemen  had  said  to  the  people  !  What 
was  it  but  saying  that  these  gentlemen  did  not  deal  honestly 
with  the  people,  or  that  they  knew  nothing  of  what  would  be 
national  honor — what  would  be  displeasing  to  Heaven — what 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  197 

would  have  a  tendency  to  dissolve  the  Union.  What  a  thrust, 
too,  at  the  whig  press  of  Tennessee,  which  had  fully  sustained 
all  these  gentlemen  in  their  arguments  before  the  people. 
Gov.  Jones'  organ,  at  Lebanon,  accordingly  rebuked  Mr.  Fos- 
ter severely  for  the  movement— Mr.  Bell's  organ,  at  Nashville, 
rebuked  him — Mr.  Henry's  organ,  at  Clarksville,  rebuked  him— 
Gen.  JHeiskell's,  at  Jackson,  rebuked  him,  whilst  the  whole 
whig  press  of  East  Tennessee  did  the  same  thing.  It  was 
to  this  incident  that  the  Enquirer,  a  whig  paper  at  Memphis, 
must  have  alluded  when  speaking  of  Mr.  Foster's  nomination 
by  his  party  : 

"  It  is,  therefore,  of  no  small  moment,  that  our  candidate  should  come  in- 
to the  field  as  free  as  possible  from  those  incumbrances  which  existing  pre- 
judices will  not  fail  to  throw  into  his  way.  He  should,  as  far  as  may  be,  have 
no  ancient  political  sins  to  answer  for — no  offences  against  popular  notions 
to  explain  away — no  alleged  inconsistences  to  reconcile,  &c.  *  *  The  first 
impulse,  therefore,  as  we  have  just  said,  was  with  scarcely  a  dissenting 
voice,  in  favor  of  his  [Mr.  Foster's]  nomination.  For  some  weeks  past, 
however,  a  sober  second  thought  has  been  working  its  way  in  the  minds  of 
many  of  our  most  sagacious  and  reflecting  friends  ;  and  at  the  present  time 
we  believe  we  represent  truly  the  ripened  judgment  of  the  Whigs  in  this 
region,  when  we  say  that  it  points  as  decisively  to  the  selection  of  a  younger, 
though  not  less  gallant  soldier  in  our  ranks,  as  under  all  the  circumstances 
by  which  we  are  surrounded,  and  in  view  of  recent  developments  the  most  judi- 
cious selection  of  a  leader  that  could  be  made." 

Such  was  the  tone  of  the  Whig  press,  and  such  the  condi- 
tion of  the  great  leaders  of  that  party  in  Tennessee,  as  mani- 
fested after  Mr.  Foster  and  Mr.  Milton  Brown  offered  their 
resolutions  of  Annexation.  It  was  a  matter  of  the  highest 
moment  to  them  to  wait  and  see  what  that  tone  and  that  con- 
dition would  be  when  the  news  of  their  introduction  should  be 
received  in  Tennessee.  They  did  wait.  They  were  over- 
whelmed by  the  returning  and  regurgitating  tide.  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life,  Mr.  Foster  saw  that  the  whig  party  of  Ten- 
nessee would  not  go  with  him.  He  now  saw  that  they  would 
go  with  Mr.  Bell  and  Gov.  Jones  and  the  other  leaders,  rather 
than  with  him.  Mr.  Milton  Brown  saw  that  his  great  rival. 
General  Heiskell,  could  hold  them  back  in  spite  of  his  teeth, 
and  that  he  and  Mr.  Foster  had  no  alternative  left  but  to  re- 
treat.    Retreat!  retreat!  was  sounding  in  their  ears.     They 


198  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

did  retreat,  and  they  who   started  so  gallantly  with  the  Demo- 
crats in  achieving  the  noble  work,  first  hesitated,  then  faltered 
and  finally  turned  back  and  recorded  their  votes  against  her. 
Mr.  Brown  recorded  his  against  Walker's   amendment,  and 
Mr.  Foster  his  against  both  the  amendment  and  his  own  origi- 
nal resolution.     It  was  a  sublime  moment  when  that  vote  was 
recorded  in  the  Senate.     It  was  recorded  at  night,  but  when 
an  hundred  lights  illuminated  the  Hall.     The  learning  and  the 
beauty  of  the  land  were  there,  crowded  almost  to   suffocation, 
but  yet  so  still  and  breathless  in  their  attention  that  the  fall  of 
a  pin  might  have  started  you  by  its  echo.     In  the  stillness  and 
grandeur  of  such  a  scence  I  saw  Texas  standing  at  the  door 
of  the  Senate  Chamber,  asking  for   admittance.     There   she 
stood  leaning  on  her  sword,  with  her  garments  dyed  in  the 
blood  of  freedom.     There  she  stood,  pleading  that  she  might 
be  permitted  to  lay  down  her  sword  by  the  side  of  Washing- 
ton's and  deposit  her  glorious  banner  of  San  Jacinto  beside 
those  under  which  your  fathers  won  the  battles  of  Brandywine, 
andPrincton,  and  Yorktown,  and  all  the  glorious  battles  of  the 
Revolution.     But  what  did  I  behold  ?     My  own  Senator,  (Mr. 
Foster)   who  had  himself  invited  her  there,  rushed  forward, 
rudely  slammed  the  door  in  her  face,  crying,  begone  !  begone ! 
Your  sword  is  a  trator's  sword,  and  the  blood  on  your  gar- 
ments is  the  blood  of  rebels  ! 

O,  why  was  not  the  ungracious  deed  left  to  be  performed  by 
other  hands  ?  If  Mr.  Foster,  after  inviting  her  there,  had 
only  stepped  forward  and  gracefully  handed  her  to  a  seat 
around  our  National  altar,  he  would  have  filled  Tennessee 
with  gratitude  and  America  with  joy.  But  the  golden  moment 
was  lost,  and  he  who-  might  have  been  the  "  observed  of  all 
observers,"  is  now  compelled  to  fix  up  this  excuse  and  patch 
up  that  apology  for  a  course  so  extraordinary  and  unexpected. 
He  will  presently  tell  you  that  he  was  sincerely  in  favor  o  f 
Annexation,  and  cite  you  to  the  speeches  which  he  made  both 
on  the  Treaty  and  on  his  resolution.  I  know  he  spoke  for 
Texas — spoke  handsomely  for  her.  But  nobody  wanted 
speeches — speeches  were  plenty  as  black-berries  for  Texas. 
We  wanted  votes  for  her,  and  these  we  could  never  screw  out  of 
Mr.  Foster  no  way  we  could  manage  it.     Speaking  for  Texas, 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  199 

the  voice    was  Jacob's  voice ;  voting   against  her,  the  hands 
were  the  hands*  of  Esau. 

He  will  further  tell  you  that  he  was  driven  from  the  support 
of  his  own  or  Milton  Brown's   resolution,  by  the  amendment 
of  Mr.  Walker  in  the  Senate.     What  was  there,  in  the  words 
of  Mr.  Walker's  amendment  thus  to  frighten   him   from  his 
purpose?     The  words  were  precisely  those  used  by  the  Ten- 
nessee Legislature — by  Burchett  Douglass,  Jno.  B.  Ashe,  H. 
M.  Burton,  and  all  your  friends  in  that    body.     If  you  con- 
demn the  words  of  that  amendment,  you  condemn  your  own 
friends,  and  if  you  save  yourself  by  this  excuse,  you  ruin  and 
destroy  them  forever.     They  told  you  to  admit  Texas  into  the 
Union  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  sovereign  States."     The 
amendment  did  admit  her  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  ex- 
isting States."     The  one  seems  to  have  been  copied  from  the 
other.     But  Mr.  Foster  will  tell  you  that  this  amendment  con- 
tained a  concession  to  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North,  which  he 
would  have  died  sooner  than  make.     A  concession  to  the  Ab- 
olitionists !     A   sacrifice  of  the  institutions  of  the  South  to  the 
foul  demon  of  fanaticism  !     Why,  how  is  this  ?     She  was  to 
come  in  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  existing  States."  What 
are  the   rights  of  the    existing  States  in  relation  to  holding 
slaves  ?     To  have  them  or  not  to  have  them,  just  as  the  peo- 
ple may  choose.     Why  do  they  not  have  slavery  in  New  York? 
Only  because  the  people  of  that  State  do  not  choose  to  have 
it.     Why  have  we  slaves  in  Tennessee  ?      Only  because  we 
choose  to  have  them.     So  it  was  to  be  with  Texas,  precisely. 
So  far  from  being  frightened  off  by  the  amendment,  he  should 
have  seized  on  it  with  avidity,  so  far  as  the  slave  question  was 
concerned,  for  that  extended  slavery,  if  the   people  of  Texas 
wanted  it,  all  over  Texas,  whereas  Mr.  Foster's  resolution  con- 
fined it  to  South  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  line.     To  sum  up  the  whole  on  this  point, 
Mr.  Foster  called  for  a  guarantee.     The  amendment  gave  it  in 
express  words,  as  plain  as  the  English  language  could  make 
it.     It  gave  a  broader  and  better  guarantee  than  Mr.  Foster 
had  given  to  himself.     It  was  but  a  delusion  of  the  brain  that 
induced  him  to  think  or  to  imagine  that  he  thought  he  could  see 
an  Abolitionist  in  Walker's  amendment.    Henderson  nor  John- 


200  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

son,  nor  Merrick  could  see  it.  Crittenden  looked,  and  told  Mr. 
Foster  that  there  was  nothing  in  it.  Mr.  Senator  Choate,  of 
Massachusetts,  himself  an  Abolitionist,  was  called  upon  to  ex- 
amine it  carefully.  He  did  so  examine  it,  and  shaking  his  head 
at  Mr.  Foster  said,  "  there  is  no  Abolitionist  there,  Mr.  Fos- 
ter. I  wish  there  was,  I  would  then  vote  for  it.  But  I  see 
slavery  there — all  over  Texas — worse  than  in  your  own  resolu- 
tions." So  Mr.  Choate  votes  against  the  amendment  because 
he  sees  a  great  big  negro  in  it,  whilst  Mr.  Foster  votes  against 
it  because  he  sees  a  red  hot  Abolitionist  in  it.  What  wonder- 
ful discrepancy  between  these  two  great  Whig  Senators  !  Mr. 
Choate  might  well  cry  out  to  Mr.  Foster 

"He  must  have  optics  keen,  I  ween, 
Who  sees  what  is  not  to  be  seen." 

Mr.  Foster  may  again,  to-day,  give  you  his  old  argument 
that  he  wanted  Texas,  but  that  he  loved  the  Union  and  the 
Constitution  better  than  Texas.  It  is  the  old  argument  of 
last  summer.  Then  we  were  told  the  same  things.  We  were 
even  told  that  the  convention  had  been  actually  called  for  its 
dissolution  to  be  held  at  Nashville,  and  that  Andrew  Jackson 
was  to  preside  over  it.  Well,  time  drove  the  false  and  infamous 
prophecy  back  on  all  the  prophets  of  Baal  who  had  uttered  it; 
no  convention  of  the  sort  was  called ;  Andrew  Jackson  now 
sleeps  in  the  tomb,  and  the  last  throb  of  his  soul  was  for  the 
Union  and  for  his  country.  Texas,  too,  has  been  annexed,  and 
now  who  sees  any  marks  of  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  on  ac- 
count of  it.  The  earth  puts  forth  its  verdure,  the  clouds  send 
down  their  showers,  the  sun  sends  forth  his  beams  to  gild  the 
mountains  and  to  gladden  the  plains  just  as  he  did  before. 
The  Union,  too,  the  bright  and  glorious  Union,  like  the  rain- 
bow of  promise,  still  bespands  the  continent.  See  how  beouti- 
fully  it  curves  along  the  blue  arch  of  Heaven,  from  the  great 
lakes  of  the  north  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south.  How 
gloriously  does  it  shine  all  along  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic — 
then  rising  above  the  eastern  mountains,  pours  its  full  blaze  of 
glory  over  the  magnificent  valley  of  the  Mississippi ;  still  on- 
ward, over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  passes  the  far  distant  Oregon, 
until  it  illuminates  the  great  Pacific  with  all  its  bays  and  rivers 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS,  201 

and  harbors.     The  Union  its  glorious    arch — the   rainbow  of 
hope  and  promise — oh,  may  ft  last  and  endure  forever. 

But  I  have  spoken  of  Oregon.  She  is  yours  by  discovery, 
yours  by  settlement,  yours  by  purchase  from  Spain.  Your 
own  people  are  there,  many  thousands  of  them,  and  more  are 
on  the  way  or  preparing  to  set  out  at  no  distant  period.  It  is 
larger  and  richer  by  far,  than  all  the  New  England  States  put 
together.  The  English  are  there  likewise ;  they  are  there  by 
your  permission,  for  the  distinct  and  specified  purpose  of  fishing, 
hunting  and  trading  chiefly  in  furs.  Being  there  for  one  pur- 
pose, they  insist  on  staying  there  as  either  sole  or  joint  owners 
of  the  country.  I  have  not  time  now  to  investigate  the  Eng- 
lish claim;  but  I  have  examined  it  well.  I  have  reported  on 
it  to  the  American  Congress,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  reaffirm 
the  declaration  of  President  Polk,  that  "  our  title  to  Oregon  is 
clear  and  unquestionable."  Session  after  session  has  the  dem- 
ocratic party  been  endeavoring  to,  extend  our  laws  over  our 
people  and  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  our  protection.  At  the 
last  session  I  reported  a  bill  for  that  purpose.  It  was  opnosed 
by  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll  and  others  of  the 
whig  party,  but  finally  passed  by  a  large  majority,  (two  or 
three  to  one,)  many  of  the  whig  party  voting  with  us.  I  was 
pained  to  see  that  every  whig  from  Tennessee  voted  against  it. 
Still  it  passed  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate.  There  a  motion 
was  made  to  take  it  up.  That  motion  failed,  I  think,  by  two 
votes,  and  I  regretted  extremely  to  see  a  measure  so  national 
in  its  character,  so  just  and  necessary  to  our  own  people,  fail 
by  the  votes  of  the  two  Senators  from  Tennessee.  Sirs,  I  can 
excuse  a  Senator  or  any  body  else  for  voting  against  Texas  a 
thousand  times  sooner  than  for  voting  against  Oregon.  Texas 
belonged  toothers,  and  we  might  buy  it  or  except  of  it  as  we 
chose ;  but  Oregon  was  our  country,  those  who  were  there 
were  bound  to  us  by  allegiance,  and  we  were  bound  to  them  by 
all  the  ties  of  duty,  of  honor  and  of  blood  to  give  them  our  pro- 
tection. They  are  there  in  sight  of  British  court  houses  and 
dungeons,  liable  every  day  to  be  arrested  and  cast  into  those 
dungeons ;  to  be  tried  before  British  judges  and  juries,  and 
then  finally  taken  away  to  the  whipping  post  and  lashed  by  a 
British  officer  until  the  blood  runs  from  the  quivering  flesh  to 


202  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

the  very  ground  on  which  they  stand.  And  yet  when  they  turn 
their  eyes  to  the  American  capitol  for  protection,  all  they  can 
get  is  some  idle  anecdote  of  a  Dutchman  who  had  never  heard 
of  Oregon.  An  American  Senator  cracking  his  jokes  whilst 
his  countrymen  may  be  bleeding !  The  negotiations  are  still 
going  on  between  the  two  countries,  and  I  sincerely  hope  may 
lead  to  an  amicable  adjustment.  Still,  however,  it  becomes 
the  American  people  to  stand  prepared  at  all  times  to  assert, 
maintain  and  defend  their  rights.  America  may  be  the  last 
asylum  of  liberty  for  the  human  family.  In  almost  every  other 
country  the  just  and  equal  rights  of  man  have  been  cloven 
down  by  the  sword,  or  usurped  by  the  kings,  princes,  and  po- 
tentates of  the  earth.  Here  liberty  has  reared  her  favorite 
temple.  She  has  laid  its  foundations  deep  and  wide.  Her 
bulwarks  have  been  made  strong,  and  the  ministers  who  attend 
her  altars  and  the  worshippers  who  throng  her  gates  should 
never  surrender  it  but  with  their  lives.  Never  was  there  a  peo- 
ple who  possessed  a  finer  or  nobler  country.  Go  up  with  me 
in  imagination  and  stand  for  awhile  on  some  lofty  summit  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Let  us  take  one  ravishing  view  of  this 
broad  land  of  liberty.  Turn  your  face  toward  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  what  do  you  behold?  Instead  of  one  lone  star  faintly 
shining  in  the  far  distant  south,  a  whole  galaxy  of  stars  of  the 
first  magnitude  are  bursting  on  your  vision  and  shining  with  a 
bright  and  glorious  effulgence.  Now  turn  with  me  to  the  west 
— the  mighty  west — where  the  setting  sun  dips  her  broad  disk 
in  the  western  ocean.  Look  away  down  through  the  misty 
distance  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  with  all  its  bays  and  har- 
bours and  rivers.  Cast  your  eyes  as  far  as  the  Russian  pos- 
sessions in  latitude  fifty-four  degrees  and  forty  minutes.  What 
a  new  world  lies  before  you.  How  many  magnificent  States 
to  be  the  future  homes  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  freedom. 
But  you  have  not  yet  gazed  on  half  this  glorious  country. 
Turn  now  your  face  to  the  east,  where  the  morning  sun  first 
shines  on  this  land  of  liberty.  Away  yonder,  you  see  the  im- 
mortal old  thirteen,  who  achieved  our  independence ;  nearer 
to  us  lie  the  twelve  or  fifteen  States  of  the  great  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  stretching  and  reposing  like  so  many  giants  in  their 
slumbers.     0  !  now  I  see  your  heart  is  full — it  can  take  in  no 


SPEECH  AT   ATHENS,  203 

more,  who  now  feels  like  he  was  a  party  man,  or  a  southern 
man,  or  a  northern  man  ?  Who  does  not  feel  that  he  is  an 
American,  and  thankful  to  Heaven  that  his  lot  was  cast  in 
such  a  goodly  land  ?  When  did  mental  vision  ever  rest  on 
such  a  scene  ?  Moses,  when  standing  on  the  top  of  Mount 
Pisgah,  looking  over  on  the  promised  land,  gazed  not  on  a 
scene  half  so  lovely.  O  !  let  us  this  day  vow  that  whatever 
else  we  may  do,  by  whatever  name  we  may  be  called,  we 
will  never  surrender  one  square  acre  of  this  goodly  heritage  to 
the  dictation  of  any  king  or  potentate  on  earth.  Swear  it ! 
swear  it  my  countrymen,  and  let  Heaven  record  the  vow  for- 
ever. What  if  the  English  Lion  shall  begin  to  growl  ?  What 
if  he  shall  presently  fill  the  air  with  his  roar  ?  Armed  with 
right  and  justice  on  our  side,  we  fear  him  not.  Our  fathers  did 
not  fear  him  before  us.  Let  him  roar.  The  American  Eagle, 
your  own  high  bird  of  liberty,  is  even  now  pluming  her  wings 
for  her  loftiest  flight,  and  will  presently  utter  notes  of  bolder 
defiance  than  England's  Lion  ever  heard. 


SPEECH. 

Extracts  from   the  Speeches    of  Aaron  V.  Brown,  at  Gallatin, 
Clarksville,  and  Jackson,  June,  1847. 


When  Gov.  Brown  rose  to  reply,  he  said,  that  he  addressed 
the  large  assembly  present  as  the  democratic  candidate  for 
Governor.  For  nearly  two  years  he  had  enjoyed  the  honors  of 
that  exalted  station,  and  he  wished  now  to  return  to  his  fellow- 
citizens  at  large  who  contributed  to  that  event  the  homage  of 
his  sincere  and  profound  gratitude.  To  preside  over  such  a 
noble  and  gallant  State,  to  contribute  any  thing  valuable  to 
her  prosperity  in  peace,  or  to  her  glory  in  war,  ought  to  fill  up 
the  measure  of  any  man's  ambition.  To  me  (said  Gov.  B.) 
such  an  honor  ought  to  be,  as  it  has  been,  peculiarly  gratifying. 
She  is  the  land  of  my  youth  and  the  home  of  my  manhood. 
Within  her  verdant  bosom  lie  buried  nearly  all  of  my  kindred. 
No  wonder,  then,  that  I  should  honor  a  State  consecrated  by  so 
many  sad  and  tender  remembrances.  No  wonder  that  I 
should  love  her  lofty  mountains,  her  deep,  majestic  rivers,  her 
wide  luxuriant  valleys,  and  more  than  all,  her  brave,  hardy, 
and  industrious  people.  Before  such  a  people  I  again  appear, 
and  will  hold  their  approbation  of  my  past  conduct  as  my 
highest  reward,  and  the  richest  inheritance  to  be  transmitted 
to  my  children. 

How  I  have  performed  my  civil  duties,  (continued  Governor 
Brown,)  may  be  judged  of  by  the  great  fact  that  neither  my 
competitor,  the  convention  which  nominated  him,  nor  the  pub- 
lic press  of  the  country,  has  complained  of  any  failure  on  my 
part.     How  I  have  performed  my  military  duties  may  be  found 


THE   MEXICAN   WAR.  205 

in  that  page  of  our  country's  history,  where  it  stands  recorded 
that  our  brave  and  gallant  volunteers — drawn  equally  and 
fairly  from  every  portion  of  the  State — were  earliest  in  the 
field,  foremost  in  the  fight,  covering  themselves,  their  kindred, 
and  their  country  with  unfading  laurels  and  undying  honors. 

But,  (says  Gov.  Brown,)  I  must  leave  whatever  relates  to 
myself  and  to  the  humble  part  which  I  have  borne  in  the  great 
events  connected  with  my  official  action,  in  order  to  reply  to 
the  extraordinary  speech  of  my  competitor,  to  which  you  have 
just  listened  :  the  most  extraordinary  one,  I  will  venture  to  re- 
peat, that  any  one  in  this  large  assembly  ever  did  hear.  He 
himself  has  told  you  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  war,  that  a 
bloody  flag  is  waving  over  us ;  that  the  Goddess  of  Peace,  in 
her  white  robes,  has  departed  from  our  land,  and  that,  in  her 
stead,  the  grim-visaged  God  of  War  is  now  scowling  over  our 
country.  And  yet,  in  all  that  hour  and  a  half  which  he  occu- 
pied, he  breathed  not  one  word  of  censure  against  our  Mexi- 
can enemy.  He  spoke  loud  and  eloquently  against  his  own 
countrymen,  but  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  say  one  soli- 
tary word  against  the  Mexicans.  He  has  charged  that  Con- 
gress has  done  wrong,  that  the  democrats  have  done  wrong, 
that  the  President  has  done  wrong ;  but  the  Mexicans,  our  en- 
emies who  came  over  in  the  night  time  and  first  commenced 
this  war,  by  killing  and  murdering  our  citizens,  my  competitor 
does  not  blame  for  a  single  act,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  frOm 
him.  When  Demosthenes  rose  to  address  his  countrymen  of 
Greece  it  was  to  denounce,  in  tones  of  thunder,  the  Macedo- 
nian enemies  of  his  country.  When  Patrick  Henry  rose  to 
address  his  countrymen,  in  the  dark  and  trying  years  of  the  rev- 
olution, it  was  to  nerve  the  arms  and  embolden  the  heart  of  the 
people  to  resist  the  despotism  of  England.  When  Clay,  and 
Grundy,  and  Lowndes,  rose  to  speak  in  the  second  war  of  in- 
dependence, it  was  to  pour  forth  the  full  tide  of  their  eloquence 
against  the  proud  mistress  of  the  seas,  for  the  impressment  of 
our  gallant  seamen.  But  now,  how  changed  the  scene !  Now, 
in  time  of  war,  when  our  gallant  countrymen  are  bleeding  on 
every  battle-field  of  Mexico,  an  American  orator  can  rise  up 
and  talk  for  hours  against  his  own  countrymen,  and  utter  not 
one  word  against  the  wanton  and  wicked  invaders  of  his  own 


206  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

country !     Look,  (said    Gov.    Brown,)  even  to   that  anecdote 
with  which  my  competitor  sought  to  amuse  you.     He  has  told 
it  all  round  the  State.      It  is    the  story  of  the  two  gamblers, 
playing  at  cards ;  the  one  an  old  gambler,  the  other  young  and 
inexperienced.     In  the  same  town,  he  tells  you,  there  was  an 
infirm,  harmless  old  man,  whose  name  was  Harsey,  not  pres- 
ent with  the  gamblers,  nor  in  any  way  concerned  in  their  dissi- 
pation.    Presently,  says  his  story,  the  old   gambler  began  to 
cheat  the  young  one,  who  resented   it  by  saying,  "  if  you  do 
that  again  I'll  knock  your  teeth  down  your  throat."     "  Don't 
do  that !"  says  the  old  gambler,  "  for  if  you  do  I'll  go  down  in 
town  and  beat  old  Harsey  to  death.     I  offer  you  no  opology, 
said  Gov.  Brown,  for  introducing  my  competitor's    anecdote 
into  so  serious  a  part  of  this  debate.     I  do  it  to  show  you  the 
great  fact,  that  every  thing  is-  to  be  said  in  disparagement  of 
our  own  countrymen,  and  nothing  prejudicial  to  our  enemies. 
Here  our  Government  is  compared  to  an  old  bloated,  cheating 
gambler,  while  Mexico  is  compared  to  a  poor,  harmless,  inno- 
cent old  man  !     The  idea  is,   that  our  Government  was  too 
cowardly  to  return  the  threatened  blows  of  England  about  Or- 
egon, but  meanly  turned  to  get  satisfaction  out  of  poor,  harm- 
less, innocent  Mexico  !      Would  the  immortal  orators  and  pa- 
triots of  the  revolution,  or  of  the  second  war  of  independence, 
ever  have  consented  thus  to  disparage  their  own  countrymen  ? 
Mexico  innocent!  Gracious  God !  Only  remember  our  country- 
men who  have  been  "  plundered,  and  maimed*  and  imprisoned, 
and,  without  cause  and  reparation,"  in  the  emphatic  language 
of  Gen.  Taylor,  and  repeated  substantially  by  Mr.  Allen   A. 
Hall,  the  ablest  whig  editor  of  the  State.     Mexico  innocent ! 
Look  at  this  very  invasion,  (for  your  whole  party  in  the  Senate 
declared  that  it  was  an  invasion,)^-for  what  was  it  made  ?  Not 
to  burn  a  few  towns  and  to  slaughter  a  few  thousand  of  our 
people:  no,  not  for  that,  bad   as  it  would  be,    but  to   tear  the 
whole  State  of  Texas  out  of  this  Union — to  tear  down  her  whole 
constitution  and  laws,  to  overturn  the  altars  of  her  religion,  and 
to  carry  her  once  more  under  the  yoke  of  Mexican   anarchy, 
worse  than  despotism  itself.     Yet  in  the  face  of  such  an  out- 
rage as  this  invasive  war — in  the  face  of  all  the  "  plundering, 
and  maiming  and  imprisoning"  of  our  people — in  the  face  of 


MEXICAN  WA.i.  207 

all  this  injustice,  and  outrage,  and  crime,  and  murder,  my 
competitor  every  day  compares  Mexico  to  a  "poor,  innocent, 
harmless  old  man"  whilst  his  own  country  is  compared  to  a 
dissipated,  bloated,  cheating  old  gambler  ! 

And  now,  said  Gov.  B.,  I  am  ready  to  answer  the  question 
of  my  competitor — "  why  James  K.  Polk  has  not  gone  to  the 
war  ?"  He  could  not  leave  the  government  at  Washington 
without  evil  consequences.  Did  Mr.  Madison  go  to  the  war 
of  1812!  But  my  aim  is  mainly  to  answer  his  question,  why  / 
have  not  gone  to  the  war.  It  might  be  answer  enough  to  say  to 
him  you  have  set  me  no  example,  and  until  that  is  done  you  have 
no  right  to  complain.  But  more  seriously ;  I  have  not  gone 
to  the  Mexican  war  because  my  countrymen  have  assigned  to 
me  duties  as  Governor  of  the  State  for  two  years  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  others ;  and  I  so  performed  them  that  neither  he 
nor  the  Convention  that  nominated  him  have  complained  of 
any  failure  on  my  part.  I  have  so  performed  them,  too,  in  re- 
ference to  this  war,  that  her  gallant  volunteers  were  among 
the  earliest  in  the  field,  foremost  in  the  fight — covering  them- 
selves, their  kindred  and  country  with  undying  honors.  I  have 
another  reason  for  my  competitor.  My  countrymen  have 
lately  assigned  me  my  present  position  of  meeting  you  in  thi3 
canvass,  to  fight  against  you,  and  Corwin  and  Webster,  and  all 
your  coadjutors,  in  all  your  varieties  of  opinion  about  this  war. 
We  need  soldiers  at  home  as  well  as  in  Mexico.  I  have  been 
more  than  two  months  engaged  in  this  warfare,  and  with  the 
blessing  of  God  I  will  fight  it  out  to  the  last.  When  the  5th 
of  August  shall  come,  it  shall  find  me  bravely  battling  under 
that  noble  banner,  on  which  is  inscribed  "  FOR  MY  COUN- 
TRY IN  PEACE,  FOR  MY  COUNTRY  IN  WAR." 
When  this  warfare  is  ended,  that  banner  shall  be  the  proud 
emblem  of  my  victory.  But  if  I  fall  from  sickness,  if  some 
pestilential  disease  of  the  West  shall  strike  me  down  I  will 
fall  nobly,  with  that  glorious  banner  waving  over  me. 

Let  us  now  for  a  moment  examine  this  favorite  position  of 
my  competitor.  What  is  it?  However  this  war  may  have 
come,  rightfully  or  wrongfully,  justly  or  unjustly,  he  is  for  prose- 
cuting it  to  a  successful  and  honorable  peace  !  What !  prose- 
cute an  unjust  war  ?    How  can  you  prosecute  an  unjust  war 


208  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

to  an  honorable  peace  ?  It  is  an  absurdity  in  morals.  You 
may  discontinue  an  unjust  war  by  making  a  treaty  of  peace, 
which  might  be  honorable  according  to  circumstances,  but  you 
can  never  make  an  honorable  peace  by  the  prosecution  of  an 
unjust  war.  But  my  competitor  relieves  himself  from  this  di- 
lemma by  adopting  the  maxim  that  he  is  for  his  country  right 
or  wrong.  That  is  the  maxim  of  the  regular  soldier  and  sailor 
acting  under  the  command  of  his  superior  officer.  Not  so  with 
the  statesman  or  the  private  citizen,  who  may  or  may  not,  at 
his  own  vocation,  engage  in  the  campaign.  With  him  ,the  in- 
quiry rises  up  high  above  all  others  :  Is  this  war  just  or  un- 
just ?  Justice  is  the  highest  and  noblest  attribute  of  God — in- 
justice, whether  of  individuals  or  of  nations,  is  the  unhallowed 
work  of  evil  and  demoniac  spirits  ;  and  I  this  day  declare,  that 
if  I  believed  this  war  was  unjust  in  its  origin,  I  would  not  vote 
another  dollar  to  the  debt,  nor  send  another  man  to  swell  the 
tide  of  blood  already  shed  in  its  prosecution.  No.  I  would 
say  to  Taylor  and  Scott,  come  home,  come  home  with  your 
armies — your  cause  is  unjust,  Mexico  is  an  innocent  and  in- 
jured nation — come  home — the  lightnings  of  heaven  will  blast 
your  eagles,  or  the  earth  open  her  mighty  bosom  and  swallow 
you  up  with  an  earthquake.  My  competitor  tells  you  that  the 
land  is  burdened  by  the  debt  of  this  war  !  Will  he  swell  and 
increase  that  debt,  or  will  he  call  on  you  to  swell  and  increase 
it,  until  he  has  first  shown  you  that  the  war  is  just  ?  He  tells 
you  the  land  is  filled  with  mourning  and  sorrow — with  the 
lamentations  of  widows  and  orphans,  and  yet  proclaims  it, 
that  he  would  deepen  the  mourning  and  swell  the  tide  of  lam- 
entation and  woe,  whether  the  war  be  right  or  wrong— just 
©r  unjust. 

This  is  the  great  question  which  my  competitor  declines  dis- 
cussing with  me — the  justice  of  the  war.  For  more  than 
fifty  days  have  I  invited  him  to  it,  but  up  to  this  good  hour 
he  stands  mute  and  silent  as  the  grave. 

Gov.  Brown  said  that  he  maintained  the  affirmative  of  this 
proposition  and  would  now  proceed  to  prove  it. 

My  first  witness  (said  Gov.  Brown)  shall  be  Mr.  Clay  him- 
self. In  a  speech  at  New  Orleans  after  the  war  had  com- 
menced, he  said,  "  and  when  I  see  around  me  to-night  Gen. 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  193 

very  high — some  4  per  cent. — some  16 — some  46-some  19,  &c, 
according  to  qualities  and  descriptions.  Would  Mr.  Foster  or 
his  party  assist  us  ?  No,  neither  he  nor  they  would  do  so. 
His  next  article  is  sugar.  The  whigs  taxed  that  66  per  cent. — 
we  tried  to  reduce  that  14  per  cent.,  and  Mr.  Foster  and  his 
party  would  not  assist  us  even  in  doing  that  much.  Mr.  Fos- 
ter merely  adds  "  almost  every  article  we  use  or  consume" — 
none  of  which,  now  recollected,  would  he  then  or  now  consent 
to  reduce  !  And  yet  we  are  told  the  whig  party  now  stand 
where  they  have  always  stood  !  I  know  well  what  Mr.  Foster 
will  say  to  this  also.  He  will  say  General  Jackson  changed 
from  the  time  he  wrote  his  Coleman  letter.  I  do  not  think  my 
competitor  (said  Mr.  Brown)  ever  understood  that  letter ;  but 
granting,  for  argument  sake,  that  General  Jackson  did  undergo 
some  change  from  1824  to  1832,  did  he  not  change  with  him 
and  stand  by  him  on  the  same  platform  with  Judge  White, 
Mr.  Bell,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  Whig  party  ?  I  have  proven 
that  he  did;  and  so  it  follows  if  General  Jackson  changed 
once,  (which  I  do  not  admit)  Mr.  Foster  and  his  party  have 
changed  twice  to  his  once.  Will  he  put  up  with  this  poor  con- 
solation? He  may  say  others  have  changed.  We  are  not 
talking  about  others — I  have  nothing  to  do  with  others  in  this 
contest ;  I  have  only  to  do  with  the  embodiment  of  the  whig 
party  in  Tennessee  ;  and  if  he  and  they  have  changed,  my 
proof  is  full  and  this  issue  is  settled.  I  care  not  what  he  says 
about  Martin  Luther,  the  Pope  of  Rome  granting  absolution 
to  the  Irishman  for  a  stack  of  hay  which  he  intended  to 
steal  but  had  not  yet  stolen.  I  care  nothing  for  all  such  things. 
I  hold  this  contested  issue  to  be  settled  by  the  proofs,  and  that 
neither  the  whig  party  nor  their  standard  bearer  can  sustain 
that  claim  to  consistency  in  politics  which  they  have  challeng- 
ed the  democracy  to  refute. 

Mr.  Foster  talks  much  about  the  home  market.  Mr.  Bell 
long  since  overturned  all  he  says  on  that  subject.  Does 
he  not  see  likewise  that  in  trying  to  build  up  a  home 
market  in  the  north,  by  a  high  tariff  which  cripples  the  south 
and  forces  them  to  raise  their  own  provisions,  that  he  strikes 
down  and  destroys  a  home  market  five  times  as  good  to  us  as 
the  northern  one  can  be  ?  He  talks  of  shutting  up  the  fac- 
14 


.•a* 


194  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

tories  and  closing  the  doors  of  the  workshops  of  our  mechanics. 
Who  proposes  to  do  this  ?  No  democrat  in  America.  All  we 
ask  is  to  lower  the  tariff  so  as  to  equalize  the  burdens  of  all 
classes — lessening,  it  is  true,  to  some  extent,  the  profits  of  the 
manufacturer,  not  the  ordinary  mechanic,  but  increasing  those 
of  the  farmer,  planter,  and  the  stock-raiser. 

Mr.  Brown  said  he  had  hurried  over  these  different  subjects, 
in  order  that  he  might  have  something  to  say  on  the  two  great 
questions  of  Texas  and  Oregon.  Day  after  day  were  wasted 
by  his  competitor  in  the  discussion  of  subjects  whose  impor- 
tance compared  to  these  did  not  weigh  as  the  dust  in  the 
balance.  They  were  attracting  the  attention  of  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  The  kings  of  the  earth  were  in  daily  consul- 
tation with  all  their  high  Minister  of  State  in  relation  to  them. 
The  news  from  this  young  republic  filled  them  with  astonish- 
ment and  terror.  Her  light  was  beginning  to  shine  too 
brightly,  her  power  was  increasing  too  rapidly,  and  the  moral 
influence  of  her  march  to  prosperity  and  greatness  was  begin- 
ning to  spread  among  the  immense  masses  of  the  old  World, 
until  every  sceptre  is  weakening  and  every  throne  tottering 
under  it.  At  first  we  started  with  only  thirteen  States,  and 
although  every  few  years  they  saw  some  solitary  additions  to 
the  number,  yet  they  still  looked  upon  us  with  unconcern  and 
indifference.  During  the  last  winter,  however,  they  saw  two 
States  admitted  at  once,  Iowa  and  Florida,  making  twenty- 
eight  States  of  this  glorious  confederacy.  They  saw  at  the 
same  time  the  admission  of  Texas,  covering  the  whole  of  the 
important  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Instantly  they  took 
the  alarm,  and  have  resorted,  and  are  yet  resorting,  to  all  the 
schemes  and  devices  in  their  power  to  prevent  its  annexation. 
Is  it  not  strange,  my  fellow-citizens,  said  Mr.  B.,  that  any  por- 
tion of  our  countrymen  should  sympathize  and  unite  with 
foreign  nations  in  wishing  to  check  the  growth  and  to  arrest 
our  onward  march  to  greatness  and  prosperity  ?  There  was 
a  time  when  it  was  not  so.  There  was  a  time  when  we  were 
all  united  like  a  band  of  brothers  in  favor  of  acquiring  that 
fine  and  noble  country.  Tennessee  led  off  in  the  great  work. 
Her  heroic  sons  had  moistened  the  soil  of  Texas  with  their 
blood,  and  the  bones  of  many  of  them  lay  bleaching  on  her 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS,  105 

battle  fields.  In  1838  her  Legislature,  with  no  division  of 
opinion,  instructed  her  Senators  to  do  all  in  their  power  in  or- 
der to  procure  her  admission.  In  1842,  with  equal  unanimity 
through  the  same  organ,  she  made  known  her  wish  for  the  suc- 
cessful accomplishment  of  the  great  object.  In  the  mean 
time,  her  greatest  and  wisest  citizen — he  who  having  filled 
the  measure  of  his  country's  glory,  now  rest  with  all  the  just 
made  perfect  in  heaven,  was  directing  his  best  efforts  to  rouse 
up  President  Tyler  to  make  the  attempt  by  negotiation  and 
treaty.  His  efforts  were  successful — John  Tyler,  with  the 
sanction  of  his  great  name,  was  encouraged  to  make  the  at- 
tempt. The  treaty  was  made.  It  was  submitted  to  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States.  To  a  Senate  that  hated  John 
Tyler — to  a  Senate  that  hated  Andrew  Jackson — to  a  Senate 
that  hated  John  C.  Calhoun — to  a  Senate  that  loved  party 
more  than  country.  It  was  rejected.  Let  me  read  what  my 
competitor  said  were  his  reasons  for  rejecting  it. 

"  I  object,"  said  he,  "  to  the  time  and  manner  of  getting  up 
this  treaty,  and  to  the  selfish  and  ambitious  motives  which  I 
faithfully  believe  actuated  the  President  in  bringing  forward 
and  pursuing  this  negotiation."  What,  object  to  the  time  ! 
When  should  it  rather  be  done,  than  when  it  can  be  done  ? 
Beside,  those  who  instructed  you,  determined  the  time.  They 
said  the  right  time  had  come  now — as  soon  as  possible.  What 
right  had  you  to  overrule  their  determination  ?  But  you  ob- 
ject to  the  selfish  and  ambitious  motives  of  John  Tyler  in 
bringing  it  forward.  What  had  his  motives  to  do  with  your  obedi- 
ence to  instructions?  The  deed  was  good — you  admitted  that 
it  was  good,  and  yet  you  refused  to  confirm  it  because  John 
Tyler  had  done  it.  Had  Lucifer  done  it — you  should  have 
confirmed  it.  The  treaty  was  rejected  in  the  spring.  The 
Presidential  canvass  was  opened  in  the  summer.  My  com- 
petitor and  all  his  friends  threw  themselves  into  the  canvass 
and  appeal  to  you  to  sustain  Mr.  Foster  in  his  vote.  What 
did  they  tell  you  ?  Do  not  annex  Texas — if  youdo,  you  will 
bring  a  stain  of  everlasting  dishonor  on  your  country.  Do 
not  annex  Texas — if  you  do  you  will  involve  your  country  in  a 
war  so  unjust,  that  Heaven  itself  will  frown  upon  you  and  take 
sides  with  Mexico.      Do  not  annex  Texas — if  you  do,  you 


196  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

will  dissolve  forever  this  bright  and  glorious  Union  !  By  such 
fervid,  but  as  it  now  seems  unfounded  appeals,  many  a  good 
man,  I  might  say  thousands  of  them  turned,  away  from  Texas. 
Tore  from  their  bosoms  all  the  natural  "sympathies  of  their 
hearts,,  and  resolved  to  leave  a  brave  and  gallant  people  to  their 
bloody  fate.  The  kings  of  the  earth  were  in  conspiracy  against 
them.  The  tyrant  of  Mexico  was  mustering  his  army,  and 
had  sent  out  his  orders  in  advance  to  kill  and  murder  every 
living  creature  found  in  the  country.  The  mother  fleeing 
with  her  infant  in  her  arms,  was  to  be  shot  down,  and  tottering 
old  age,  unable  to  flee,  was  to  receive  the  same  savage  fate. 
Little  did  our  people  think  that  they  were  called  upon  to  do 
all  this  only  to  aid  in  the  election  of  Henry  Clay  to  the  Presi- 
dency. But  it  was  even  so.  My  competitor  now  often  states 
that  when  he  first  saw  this  Texas  question  it  appeared  like  a 
♦  dark  cloud  on  the  horizon,  and  that  he  told  his  friends  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it  until  they  saw  who  was  to  be  President. 
Treasure  these  words  up  in  your  memory,  carry  them  home 
with  you  to  your  neighbors.  They  shed  a  flood  of  light  on 
this  whole  subject — "  have  nothing  to  do  with  it  until  you  see 
who  is  to  be  President."  Well,  the  election  was  over.  The 
flag  of  Texas  waived  in  triumph  over  the  nation — but,  alas,  it 
could  have  no  triumph  in  Tennessee  !  By  a  majority  of  113 
it  was  made  to  trail  in  the  dust.  The  flag  of  San  Jacinto — the 
flag  under  which  Houston  fought  and  under  which  Crocket 
fell !  The  flag,  I  repeat,  was  made  to  trail  in  the  dust ;  but, 
thank  God,  only  by  113 ;  and  even  these  were  obtained  by  pre- 
tended and  cunning  and  heartless  devices. 

Do  you  ask  me  for  proof  that  it  was  accomplished  by  such 
devices  ?  My  competitor  himself  has  said  so.  He  said  so,  by 
offering  resolutions  of  annexation  himself,  so  soon  as  Congress 
met.  What  a  reflection  was  that  on  Mr.  Bell,  on  Gov.  Jones, 
on  Mr.  Henry,  on  Mr.  Neil  S.  Brown,  and  Gen.  Heiskell — on 
his  own  brother  Senator  setting  every  day  by  his  side,  uncon- 
sulted  as  I  understand  on  this  great  movement — right  in  the 
face  of  all  that  these  gentlemen  had  said  to  the  people  !  What 
was  it  but  saying  that  these  gentlemen  did  not  deal  honestly 
with  the  people,  or  that  they  knew  nothing  of  what  would  be 
national  honor — what  would  be  displeasing  to  Heaven — what 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  Wt 

would  have  a  tendency  to  dissolve  the  Union.  What  a  thrust, 
too,  at  the  whig  press  of  Tennessee,  which  had  fully  sustained 
all  these  gentlemen  in  their  arguments  before  the  people. 
Gov.  Jones'  organ,  at  Lebanon,  accordingly  rebuked  Mr.  Fos- 
ter severely  for  the  movement— Mr.  Bell's  organ,  at  Nashville, 
rebuked  him— Mr.  Henry's  organ,  at  Clarksville,  rebuked  him— 
Gen.  JHeiskell's,  at  Jackson,  rebuked  him,  whilst  the  whole 
whig  press  of  East  Tennessee  did  the  same  thing.  It  was 
to  this  incident  that  the  Enquirer,  a  whig  paper  at  Memphis, 
must  have  alluded  when  speaking  of  Mr.  Foster's  nomination 
by  his  party  : 

"  It  is,  therefore,  of  no  small  moment,  that  our  candidate  should  come  in- 
to the  field  as  free  as  possible  from  those  incumbrances  which  existing  pre- 
judices will  not  fail  to  throw  into  his  way.  He  should,  as  far  as  may  be,  have 
no  ancient  political  sins  to  answer  for — no  offences  against  popular  notions 
to  explain  away — no  alleged  inconsistences  to  reconcile,  &c.  *  *  The  first 
impulse,  therefore,  as  we  have  just  said,  was  with  scarcely  a  dissenting 
voice,  in  favor  of  his  [Mr.  Foster's]  nomination.  For  some  weeks  past, 
however,  a  sober  second  thought  has  been  working  its  way  in  the  minds  of 
many  of  our  most  sagacious  and  reflecting  friends  ;  and  at  the  present  time 
we  believe  we  represent  truly  the  ripened  judgment  of  the  Whigs  in  this 
region,  when  we  say  that  it  points  as  decisively  to  the  selection  of  a  younger, 
though  not  less  gallant  soldier  in  our  ranks,  as  under  all  the  circumstances 
by  which  we  are  surrounded,  and  in  view  of  recent  developments  the  most  judi- 
cious selection  of  a  leader  that  could  be  made." 

Such  was. the  tone  of  the  Whig  press,  and  such  the  condi- 
tion of  the  great  leaders  of  that  party  in  Tennessee,  as  mani- 
fested after  Mr.  Foster  and  Mr.  Milton  Brown  offered  their 
resolutions  of  Annexation.  It  was  a  matter  of  the  highest 
moment  to  them  to  wait  and  see  what  that  tone  and  that  con- 
dition would  be  when  the  news  of  their  introduction  should  be 
received  in  Tennessee.  They  did  wait.  They  were  over- 
whelmed by  the  returning  and  regurgitating  tide.  For  the  first 
time  in  his  life,  Mr.  Foster  saw  that  the  whig  party  of  Ten- 
nessee would  not  go  with  him.  He  now  saw  that  they  would 
go  with  Mr.  Bell  and  Gov.  Jones  and  the  other  leaders,  rather 
than  with  him.  Mr.  Milton  Brown  saw  that  his  great  rival, 
General  Heiskell,  could  hold  them  back  in  spite  of  his  teeth, 
and  that  he  and  Mr.  Foster  had  no  alternative  left  but  to  re- 
treat.    Retreat!  retreat!  was  sounding  in  their  ears.     They 


198    .  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

did  retreat,  and  they  who  started  so  gallantly  with  the  Demo- 
crats in  achieving  the  noble  work,  first  hesitated,  then  faltered 
and  finally  turned  back  and  recorded  their  votes  against  her. 
Mr.  Brown  recorded  his  against  Walker's  amendment,  and 
Mr.  Foster  his  against  both  the  amendment  and  his  own  origi- 
nal resolution.  It  was  a  sublime  moment  when  that  vote  was 
recorded  in  the  Senate.  It  was  recorded  at  night,  but  when 
an  hundred  lights  illuminated  the  Hall.  The  learning  and  the 
beauty  of  the  land  were  there,  crowded  almost  to  suffocation, 
but  yet  so  still  and  breathless  in  their  attention  that  the  fall  of 
a  pin  might  have  started  you  by  its  echo.  In  the  stillness  and 
grandeur  of  such  a  scence  I  saw  Texas  standing  at  the  door 
of  the  Senate  Chamber,  asking  for  admittance.  There  she 
stood  leaning  on  her  sword,  with  her  garments  dyed  in  the 
blood  of  freedom.  There  she  stood,  pleading  that  she  might 
be  permitted  to  lay  down  her  sword  by  the  side  of  Washing- 
ton's and  deposit  her  glorious  banner  of  San  Jacinto  beside 
those  under  which  your  fathers  won  the  battles  of  Brandywine, 
and  Princton,  and  Yorktown,  and  all  the  glorious  battles  of  the 
Revolution.  But  what  did  I  behold  ?  My  own  Senator,  (Mr. 
Foster)  who  had  himself  invited  her  there,  rushed  forward, 
rudely  slammed  the  door  in  her  face,  crying,  begone  !  begone ! 
Your  sword  is  a  trator's  sword,  and  the  blood  on  your  gar- 
ments is  the  blood  of  rebels  ! 

O,  why  was  not  the  ungracious  deed  left  to  be  performed  by 
other  hands  ?  If  Mr.  Foster,  after  inviting  her  there,  had 
only  stepped  forward  and  gracefully  handed  her  to  a  seat 
around  our  National  altar,  he  would  have  filled  Tennessee 
with  gratitude  and  America  with  joy.  But  the  golden  moment 
was  lost,  and  he  who  might  have  been  the  "  observed  of  all 
observers,"  is  now  compelled  to  fix  up  this  excuse  and  patch 
up  that  apology  for  a  course  so  extraordinary  and  unexpected. 
He  will  presently  tell  you  that  he  was  sincerely  in  favor  o  f 
Annexation,  and  cite  you  to  the  speeches  which  he  made  both 
on  the  Treaty  and  on  his  resolution.  I  know  he  spoke  for 
Texas — spoke  handsomely  for  her.  But  nobody  wanted 
speeches — speeches  were  plenty  as  black-berries  for  Texas. 
We  wanted  votes  for  her,  and  these  we  could  never  screw  out  of 
Mr.  Foster  no  way  we  could  manage  it.     Speaking  for  Texas, 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  199 

the  voice    was  Jacob's  voice ;  voting   against  her,  the  hands 
were  the  hands  of  Esau. 

He  will  further  tell  you  that  he  was  driven  from  the  support 
of  his  own  or  Milton  Brown's  resolution,  by  the  amendment 
of  Mr.  Walker  in  the  Senate.  What  was  there  in  the  words 
of  Mr.  Walker's  amendment  thus  to  frighten  him  from  his 
purpose  ?  The  words  were  precisely  those  used  by  the  Ten- 
nessee Legislature — by  Burchett  Douglass,  Jno.  B.  Ashe,  H. 
M.  Burton,  and  all  your  friends  in  that  body.  If  you  con- 
demn the  words  of  that  amendment,  you  condemn  your  own 
friends,  and  if  you  save  yourself  by  this  excuse,  you  ruin  and 
destroy  them  forever.  They  told  you  to  admit  Texas  into  the 
Union  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  sovereign  States."  The 
amendment  did  admit  her  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  ex- 
isting States."  The  one  seems  to  have  been  copied  from  the 
other.  But  Mr.  Foster  will  tell  you  that  this  amendment  con- 
tained a  concession  to  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North,  which  he 
would  have  died  sooner  than  make.  A  concession  to  the  Ab- 
olitionists !  A  sacrifice  of  the  institutions  of  the  South  to  the 
foul  demon  of  fanaticism  !  Why,  how  is  this  ?  She  was  to 
come  in  "  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  existing  States."  What 
are  the  rights  of  the  existing  States  in  relation  to  holding 
slaves  ?  To  have  them  or  not  to  have  them,  just  as  the  peo- 
ple may  choose.  Why  do  they  not  have  slavery  in  New  York? 
Only  because  the  people  of  that  State  do  not  choose  to  have 
it.  Why  have  we  slaves  in  Tennessee  ?  Only  because  we 
choose  to  have  them.  So  it  was  to  be  with  Texas,  precisely. 
So  far  from  being  frightened  off  by  the  amendment,  he  should 
have  seized  on  it  with  avidity,  so  far  as  the  slave  question  was 
concerned,  for  that  extended  slavery,  if  the  people  of  Texas 
wanted  it,  all  over  Texas,  whereas  Mr.  Foster's  resolution  con- 
fined it  to  South  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  line.  To  sum  up  the  whole  on  this  point, 
Mr.  Foster  called  for  a  guarantee.  The  amendment  gave  it  in 
express  words,  as  plain  as  the  English  language  could  make 
it.  It  gave  a  broader  and  better  guarantee  than  Mr.  Foster 
had  given  to  himself.  It  was  but  a  delusion  of  the  brain  that 
induced  him  to  think  or  to  imagine  that  he  thought  he  could  see 
an  Abolitionist  in  Walker's  amendment.     Henderson  nor  John- 


200  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

son,  nor  Merrick  could  see  it.  Crittenden  looked,  and  told  Mr. 
Foster  that  there  was  nothing  in  it.  Mr.  Senator  Choate,  of 
Massachusetts,  himself  an  Abolitionist,  was  called  upon  to  ex- 
amine it  carefully.  He  did  so  examine  it,  and  shaking  his  head 
at  Mr.  Foster  said,  "  there  is  no  Abolitionist  there,  Mr.  Fos- 
ter. I  wish  there  was,  I  would  then  vote  for  it.  But  I  see 
slavery  there — all  over  Texas — worse  than  in  your  own  resolu- 
tions." So  Mr.  Choate  votes  against  the  amendment  because 
he  sees  a  great  big  negro  in  it,  whilst  Mr.  Foster  votes  against 
it  because  he  sees  a  red  hot  Abolitionist  in  it.  What  wonder- 
ful discrepancy  between  these  two  great  Whig  Senators  !  Mr. 
Choate  might  well  cry  out  to  Mr.  Foster 

"  He  must  have  optics  keen,  I  ween, 
Who  sees  what  is  not  to  be  seen." 

Mr.  Foster  may  again,  to-day,  give  you  his  old  argument 
that  he  wanted  Texas,  but  that  he  loved  the  Union  and  the 
Constitution  better  than  Texas.  It  is  the  old  argument  of 
last  summer.  Then  we  were  told  the  same  things.  We  were 
even  told  that  the  convention  had  been  actually  called  for  its 
dissolution  to  be  held  at  Nashville,  and  that  Andrew  Jackson 
was  to  preside  over  it.  Well,  time  drove  the  false  and  infamous 
prophecy  back  on  all  the  prophets  of  Baal  who  had  uttered  it; 
no  convention  of  the  sort  was  called ;  Andrew  Jackson  now 
sleeps  in  the  tomb,  and  the  last  throb  of  his  soul  was  for  the 
Union  and  for  his  country.  Texas,  too,  has  been  annexed,  and 
now  who  sees  any  marks  of  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  on  ac- 
count of  it.  The  earth  puts  forth  its  verdure,  the  clouds  send 
down  their  showers,  the  sun  sends  forth  his  beams  to  gild  the 
mountains  and  to  gladden  the  plains  just  as  he  did  before. 
The  Union,  too,  the  bright  and  glorious  Union,  like  the  rain- 
bow of  promise,  still bespands  the  continent.  See  how  beouti- 
fully  it  curves  along  the  blue  arch  of  Heaven,  from  the  great 
lakes  of  the  north  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south.  How 
gloriously  does  it  shine  all  along  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic — 
then  rising  above  the  eastern  mountains,  pours  its  full  blaze  of 
glory  over  the  magnificent  valley  of  the  Mississippi ;  still  on- 
ward, over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  passes  the  far  distant  Oregon, 
until  it  illuminates  the  great  Pacific  with  all  its  bays  and  rivers 


SPEECH  AT  ATHENS.  201 

and  harbors.     The  Union  its  glorious    arch— the   rainbow  of 
hope  and  promise — oh,  may  it  last  and  endure  forever. 

But  I  have  spoken  of  Oregon.  She  is  yours  by  discovery, 
yours  by  settlement,  yours  by  purchase  from  Spain.  Your 
own  people  are  there,  many  thousands  of  them,  and  more  are 
on  the  way  or  preparing  to  set  out  at  no  distant  period.  It  is 
larger  and  richer  by  far,  than  all  the  New  England  States  put 
together.  The  English  are  there  likewise ;  they  are  there  by 
your  permission,  for  the  distinct  and  specified  purpose  of  fishing, 
hunting  and  trading  chiefly  in  furs.  Being  there  for  one  pur- 
pose, they  insist  on  staying  there  as  either  sole  or  joint  owners 
of  the  country.  I  have  not  time  now  to  investigate  the  Eng- 
lish claim;  but  I  ltave  examined  it  well.  I  have  reported  on 
it  to  the  American  Congress,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  reaffirm 
the  declaration  of  President  Polk,  that  "  our  title  to  Oregon  is 
clear  and  unquestionable."  Session  after  session  has  the  dem- 
ocratic party  been  endeavoring  to  extend  our  laws  over  our 
people  and  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  our  protection.  At  the 
last  session  I  reported  a  bill  for  that  purpose.  It  was  opposed 
by  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll  and  others  of  the 
whig  party,  but  finally  passed  by  a  large  majority,  (two  or 
three  to  one,)  many  of  the  whig  party  voting  with  us.  I  was 
pained  to  see  that  every  whig  from  Tennessee  voted  against  it. 
Still  it  passed  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate.  There  a  motion 
was  made  to  take  it  up.  That  motion  failed,  I  think,  by  two 
votes,  and  I  regretted  extremely  to  see  a  measure  so  national 
in  its  character,  so  just  and  necessary  to  our  own  people,  fail 
by  the  votes  of  the  two  Senators  from  Tennessee.  Sirs,  I  can 
excuse  a  Senator  or  any  body  else  for  voting  against  Texas  a 
thousand  times  sooner  than  for  voting  against  Oregon.  Texas 
belonged  toothers,  and  we  might  buy  it  or  except  of  it  as  we 
chose ;  but  Oregon  was  our  country,  those  who  were  there 
were  bound  to  us  by  allegiance,  and  we  were  bound  to  them  by 
all  the  ties  of  duty,  of  honor  and  of  blood  to  give  them  our  pro- 
tection. They  are  there  in  sight  of  British  court  houses  and 
dungeons,  liable  every  day  to  be  arrested  and  cast  into  those 
dungeons ;  to  be  tried  before  British  judges  and  juries,  and 
then  finally  taken  away  to  the  whipping  post  and  lashed  by  a 
British  officer  until  the  blood  runs  from  the  quivering  flesh  to 


202  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

the  very  ground  on  which  they  stand.  And  yet  when  they  turn 
their  eyes  to  the  American  capitol  for  protection,  all  they  can 
get  is  some  idle  anecdote  of  a  Dutchman  who  had  never  heard 
of  Oregon.  An  American  Senator  cracking  his  jokes  whilst 
his  countrymen  may  be  bleeding !  The  negotiations  are  still 
going  on  between  the  two  countries,  and  I  sincerely  hope  may 
lead  to  an  amicable  adjustment.  Still,  however,  it  become^ 
the  American  people  to  stand  prepared  at  all  times  to  assert, 
maintain  and  defend  their  rights.  America  may  be  the  last 
asylum  of  liberty  for  the  human  family.  In  almost  every  other 
country  the  just  and  equal  rights  of  man  have  been  cloven 
down  by  the  sword,  or  usurped  by  the  kings,  princes,  and  po- 
tentates of  the  earth.  Here  liberty  has  reared  her  favorite 
temple.  She  has  laid  its  foundations  deep  and  wide.  Her 
bulwarks  have  been  made  strong,  and  the  ministers  who  attend 
her  altars  and  the  worshippers  who  throng  her  gates  should 
never  surrender  it  but  with  their  lives.  Never  was  there  a  peo- 
ple who  possessed  a  finer  or  nobler  country.  Go  up  with  me 
in  imagination  and  stand  for  awhile  on  some  lofty  summit  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  Let  us  take  one  ravishing  view  of  this 
broad  land  of  liberty.  Turn  your  face  toward  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  what  do  you  behold?  Instead  of  one  lone  star  faintly 
shining  in  the  far  distant  south,  a  whole  galaxy  of  stars  of  the 
first  magnitude  are  bursting  on  your  vision  and  shining  with  a 
bright  and  glorious  effulgence.  Now  turn  with  me  to  the  west 
— the  mighty  west — where  the  setting  sun  dips  her  broad  disk 
in  the  western  ocean.  Look  away  down  through  the  misty 
distance  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  with  all  its  bays  and  har- 
bours and  rivers.  Cast  your  eyes  as  far  as  the  Russian  pos- 
sessions in  latitude  fifty-four  degrees  and  forty  minutes.  What 
a  new  world  lies  before  you.  How  many  magnificent  States 
to  be  the  future  homes  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  freedom. 
But  you  have  not  yet  gazed  on  half  this  glorious  country. 
Turn  now  your  face  to  the  east,  where  the  morning  sun  first 
shines  on  this  land  of  liberty.  Away  yonder,  you  see  the  im- 
mortal old  thirteen,  who  achieved  our  independence ;  nearer 
to  us  lie  the  twelve  or  fifteen  States  of  the  great  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  stretching  and  reposing  like  so  many  giants  in  their 
slumbers.     O  !  now  I  see  your  heart  is  full — it  can  take  in  no 


SPEECH  AT   ATHENS,  203 

more,  who  now  feels  like  he  was  a  party  man,  or  a  southern 
man,  or  a  northern  man  ?  Who  does  not  feel  that  he  is  an 
American,  and  thankful  to  Heaven  that  his  lot  was  cast  in 
such  a  goodly  land  ?  When  did  mental  vision  ever  rest  on 
such  a  scene  ?  Moses,  when  standing  on  the  top  of  Mount 
Pisgah,  looking  over  on  the  promised  land,  gazed  not  on  a 
scene  half  so  lovely.  O  !  let  us  this  day  vow  that  whatever 
else  we  may  do,  by  whatever  name  we  may  be  called,  we 
will  never  surrender  one  square  acre  of  this  goodly  heritage  to 
the  dictation  of  any  king  or  potentate  on  earth.  Swear  it ! 
swear  it  my  countrymen,  and  let  Heaven  record  the  vow  for- 
ever. What  if  the  English  Lion  shall  begin  to  growl  ?  What 
if  he  shall  presently  fill  the  air  with  his  roar  ?  Armed  with 
right  and  justice  on  our  side,  we  fear  him  not.  Our  fathers  did 
not  fear  him  before  us.  Let  him  roar.  The  American  Eagle, 
your  own  high  bird  of  liberty,  is  even  now  pluming  her  wings 
for  her  loftiest  flight,  and  will  presently  utter  notes  of  bolder 
defiance  than  England's  Lion  ever  heard. 


* 


SPEECH. 

Extracts  from   the  Speeches    of  Aaron   V.  Brown,  at  Gallatin, 
Clarksville,  and  Jackson,  June,  1847. 


When  Gov.  Brown  rose  to  reply,  he  said,  that  he  addressed 
the  large  assembly  present  as  the  democratic  candidate  for 
Governor.  For  nearly  two  years  he  had  enjoyed  the  honors  of 
that  exalted  station,  and  he  wished  now  to  return  to  his  fellow- 
citizens  at  large  who  contributed  to  that  event  the  homage  of 
his  sincere  and  profound  gratitude.  To  preside  over  such  a 
noble  and  gallant  State,  to  contribute  any  thing  valuable  to 
her  prosperity  in  peace,  or  to  her  glory  in  war,  ought  to  fill  up 
the  measure  of  any  man's  ambition.  To  me  (said  Gov.  B.) 
such  an  honor  ought  to  be,  as  it  has  been,  peculiarly  gratifying. 
She  is  the  land  of  my  youth  and  the  home  of  my  manhood. 
Within  her  verdant  bosom  lie  buried  nearly  all  of  my  kindred. 
No  wonder,  then,  that  I  should  honor  a  State  consecrated  by  so 
many  sad  and  tender  remembrances.  No  wonder  that  I 
should  love  her  lofty  mountains,  her  deep,  majestic  rivers,  her 
wide  luxuriant  valleys,  and  more  than  all,  her  brave,  hardy, 
and  industrious  people.  Before  such  a  people  I  again  appear, 
and  will  hold  their  approbation  of  my  past  conduct  as  my 
highest  reward,  and  the  richest  inheritance  to  be  transmitted 
to  my  children. 

How  I  have  performed  my  civil  duties,  (continued  Governor 
Brown,)  may  be  judged  of  by  the  great  fact  that  neither  my 
competitor,  the  convention  which  nominated  him,  nor  the  pub- 
lic press  of  the  country,  has  complained  of  any  failure  on  my 
part.     How  I  have  performed  my  military  duties  may  be  found 


0  * 

THE   MEXICAN   WAR.  205 

in  that  page  of  our  country's  history,  where  it  stands  recorded 
that  our  brave  and  gallant  volunteers — drawn  equally  and 
fairly  from  every  portion  of  the  State — were  earliest  in  the 
field,  foremost  in  the  fight,  covering  themselves,  their  kindred, 
and  their  country  with  unfading  laurels  and  undying  honors. 

But,  (says  Gov.  Brown,)  I  must  leave  whatever  relates  to 
myself  and  to  the  humble  part  which  I  have  borne  in  the  great 
events  connected  with  my  official  action,  in  order  to  reply  to 
the  extraordinary  speech  of  my  competitor,  to  which  you  have 
just  listened  :  the  most  extraordinary  one,  I  will  venture  to  re- 
peat, that  any  one  in  this  large  assembly  ever  did  hear.  He 
himself  has  told  you  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  war,  that  a 
bloody  flag  is  waving  over  us  ;  that  the  Goddess  of  Peace,  in 
her  white  robes,  has  departed  from  our  land,  and  that,,  in  her 
stead,  the  grim-visaged  God  of  War  is  now  scowling  over  our 
country.  And  yet,  in  all  that  hour  and  a  half  which  he  occu- 
pied, he  breathed  not  one  word  of  censure  against  our  Mexi- 
can enemy.  He  spoke  loud  and  eloquently  against  his  own 
countrymen,  but  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  say  one  soli- 
tary word  against  the  Mexicans.  He  has  charged  that  Con- 
gress has  done  wrong,  that  the  democrats  have  done  wrong, 
that  the  President  has  done  wrong ;  but  the  Mexicans,  our  en- 
emies who  came  over  in  the  night  time  and  first  commenced 
this  war,  by  killing  and  murdering  our  citizens,  my  competitor 
does  not  blame  for  a  single  act,  so  far  as  we  can  learn  from 
him.  When  Demosthenes  rose  to  address  his  countrymen  of 
Greece  it  was  to  denounce,  in  tones  of  thunder,  the  Macedo- 
nian enemies  of  his  country.  When  Patrick  Henry  rose  to 
address  his  countrymen,  in  the  dark  and  trying  years  of  the  rev- 
olution, it  was  to  nerve  the  arms  and  embolden  the  heart  of  the 
people  to  resist  the  despotism  of  England.  When  Clay,  and 
Grundy,  and  Lowndes,  rose  to  speak  in  the  second  war  of  in- 
dependence, it  was  to  pour  forth  the  full  tide  of  their  eloquence 
against  the  proud  mistress  of  the  seas,  for  the  impressment  of 
our  gallant  seamen.  But  now,  how  changed  the  scene !  Now, 
in  time  of  war,  when  our  gallant  countrymen  are  bleeding  on 
every  battle-field  of  Mexico,  an  American  orator  can  rise  up 
and  talk  for  hours  against  his  own  countrymen,  and  utter  not 
one  word  against  the  wanton  and  wicked  invaders  of  his  own 


206  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

country !     Look,  (said    Gov.    Brown,)  even  to   that  anecdote 
with  which  my  competitor  sought  to  amuse  you.     He  has  told 
it  all  round  the  State.      It  is    the  story  of  the  two  gamblers, 
playing  at  cards ;  the  one  an  old  gambler,  the  other  young  and 
inexperienced.     In  the  same  town,  he  tells  you,  there  was  an 
infirm,  harmless  old  man,  whose  name  wTas  Harsey,  not  pres- 
ent with  the  gamblers,  nor  in  any  way  concerned  in  their  dissi- 
pation.    Presently,  says  his  story,  the  old   gambler  began  to 
cheat  the  young  one,  who  resented   it  by  saying,  "  if  you  do 
that  again  I'll  knock  your  teeth  down  your  throat."      "  Don't 
do  that !"  says  the  old  gambler,  "  for  if  you  do  I'll  go  down  in 
town  and  beat  old  Harsey  to  death.     I  offer  you  no  opology, 
said  Gov.  Brown,   for  introducing  my  competitor's    anecdote 
into  so  serious  a  part  of  this  debate.     I  do  it  to  show  you  the 
great  fact,  that  every  thing  is  to  be  said  in  disparagement  of 
our  own  countrymen,  and  nothing  prejudicial  to  our  enemies. 
Here  our  Government  is  compared  to  an  old  bloated,  cheating 
gambler,  while  Mexico  is  compared  to  a  poor,  harmless,  inno- 
cent old  man  !      The  idea  is,   that  our  Government  was  too 
cowardly  to  return  the  threatened  blows  of  England  about  Or- 
egon, but  meanly  turned  to  get  satisfaction  out  of  poor,  harm- 
less, innocent  Mexico  !      Would  the  immortal  orators  and  pa- 
triots of  the  revolution,  or  of  the  second  war  of  independence, 
ever  have  consented  thus  to  disparage  their  own  countrymen  ? 
Mexico  innocent!  Gracious  God !  Only  remember  our  country- 
men who  have  been  "  plundered,  and  maimed*  and  imprisoned, 
and,  without  cause  and  reparation,"  in  the  emphatic  language 
of  Gen.  Taylor,  and  repeated  substantially  by  Mr.  Allen   A. 
Hall,  the  ablest  whig  editor  of  the  State.     Mexico  innocent ! 
Look  at  this  very  invasion,  (for  your  whole  party  in  the  Senate 
declared  that  it  was  an  invasion,) — for  what  was  it  made  ?  Not 
to  burn  a  few  towns  and  to  slaughter  a  few  thousand  of  our 
people  :  no,  not  for  that,  bad   as  it  would  be,    but  to   tear  the 
whole  State  of  Texas  out  of  this  Union — to  tear  down  her  whole 
constitution  and  laws,  to  overturn  the  altars  of  her  religion,  and 
to  carry  her  once  more  under  the  yoke  of  Mexican   anarchy, 
worse  than   despotism  itself.     Yet  in  the  face  of  such  an  out- 
rage as  this  invasive  war — in  the  face  of  all  the  "  plundering, 
and  maiming  and  imprisoning"  of  our  people — in  the  face  of 


MEXICAN  WAR.  207 

all  this  injustice,  and  outrage,  and  crime,  and  murder,  my 
competitor  every  day  compares  Mexico  to  a  " poor,  innocent, 
harmless  old  man"  whilst  his  own  country  is  compared  to  a 
dissipated,  bloated,  cheating  old  gambler  ! 

And  now,  said  Gov.  B.,  I  am  ready  to  answer  the  question 
of  my  competitor — "  why  James  K.  Polk  has  not  gone  to  the 
war  ?"  He  could  not  leave  the  government  at  Washington 
without  evil  consequences.  Did  Mr.  Madison  go  to  the  war 
of  1812!  But  my  aim  is  mainly  to  answer  his  question,  why  / 
have  not  gone  to  the  war.  It  might  be  answer  enough  to  say  to 
him  you  have  set  me  no  example,  and  until  that  is  done  you  have 
no  right  to  complain.  But  more  seriously ;  I  have  not  gone 
to  the  Mexican  war  because  my  countrymen  have  assigned  to 
me  duties  as  Governor  of  the  State  for  two  years  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  others ;  and  I  so  performed  them  that  neither  he 
nor  the  Convention  that  nominated  him  have  complained  of 
any  failure  on  my  part.  I  have  so  performed  them,  too,  in  re- 
ference to  this  war,  that  her  gallant  volunteers  were  among 
the  earliest  in  the  field,  foremost  in  the  fight — covering  them- 
selves, their  kindred  and  country  with  undying  honors.  I  have 
another  reason  for  my  competitor.  My  countrymen  have 
lately  assigned  me  my  present  position  of  meeting  you  in  this 
canvass,  to  fight  against  you,  and  Corwin  and  Webster,  and  all 
your  coadjutors,  in  all  your  varieties  of  opinion  about  this  war. 
We  need  soldiers  at  home  as  well  as  in  Mexico.  I  have  been 
more  than  two  months  engaged  in  this  warfare,  and  with  the 
blessing  of  God  I  will  fight  it  out  to  the  last.  When  the  5th 
of  August  shall  come,  it  shall  find  me  bravely  battling  under 
that  noble  banner,  on  which  is  inscribed  "  FOR  MY  COUN- 
TRY IN  PEACE,  FOR  MY  COUNTRY  IN  WAR/' 
When  this  warfare  is  ended,  that  banner  shall  be  the  proud 
emblem  of  my  victory.  But  if  I  fall  from  sickness,  if  some 
pestilential  disease  of  the  West  shall  strike  me  down  I  will 
fall  nobly,  with  that  glorious  banner  waving  over  me. 

Let  us  now  for  a  moment  examine  this  favorite  position  of 
my  competitor.  What  is  it  ?  However  this  war  may  have 
come,  rightfully  or  wrongfully,  justly  or  unjustly,  he  is  for  prose* 
cuting  it  to  a  successful  and  honorable  peace  !  What !  prose- 
cute an  unjust  war  ?     How  can  you  prosecute  an  unjust  war 


% 


208  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

to  an  honorable  peace  ?  It  is  an  absurdity  in  morals.  You 
may  discontinue  an  unjust  war  by  making  a  treaty  of  peace, 
which  might  be  honorable  according  to  circumstances,  but  you 
can  never  make  an  honorable  peace  by  the  prosecution  of  an 
unjust  war.  But  my  competitor  relieves  himself  from  this  di- 
lemma by  adopting  the  maxim  that  he  is  for  his  country  right 
or  wrong.  That  is  the  maxim  of  the  regular  soldier  and  sailor 
acting  under  the  command  of  his  superior  officer.  Not  so  with 
the  statesman  or  the  private  citizen,  who  may  or  may  not,  at 
his  own  vocation,  engage  in  the  campaign.  With  him  ,the  in- 
quiry rises  up  high  above  all  others  :  Is  this  war  just  or  un- 
just ?  Justice  is  the  highest  and  noblest  attribute  of  God — in- 
justice, whether  of  individuals  or  of  nations,  is  the  unhallowed 
work  of  evil  and  demoniac  spirits  ;  and  I  this  day  declare,  that 
if  I  believed  this  war  was  unjust  in  its  origin,  I  would  not  vote 
another  dollar  to  the  debt,  nor  send  another  man  to  swell  the 
tide  of  blood  already  shed  in  its  prosecution.  No.  I  would 
say  to  Taylor  and  Scott,  come  home,  come  home  with  your 
armies — your  cause  is  unjust,  Mexico  is  an  innocent  and  in- 
jured nation — come  home — the  lightnings  of  heaven  will  blast 
your  eagles,  or  the  earth  open  her  mighty  bosom  and  swallow 
you  up  with  an  earthquake.  My  competitor  tells  you  that  the 
land  is  burdened  by  the  debt  of  this  war !  Will  he  swell  and 
increase  that  debt,  or  will  he  call  on  you  to  swell  and  increase 
it,  until  he  has  first  shown  you  that  the  war  is  just  ?  He  tells 
you  the  land  is  filled  with  mourning  and  sorrow — with  the 
lamentations  of  widows  and  orphans,  and  yet  proclaims  it, 
that  he  would  deepen  the  mourning  and  swell  the  tide  of  lam- 
entation and  woe,  whether  the  war  be  right  or  wrong — just 
or  unjust. 

This  is  the  great  question  which  my  competitor  declines  dis- 
cussing with  me — the  justice  of  the  war.  For  more  than 
fifty  days  have  I  invited  him  to  it,  but  up  to  this  good  hour 
he  stands  mute  and  silent  as  the  grave. 

Gov.  Brown  said  that  he  maintained  the  affirmative  of  this 
proposition  and  would  now  proceed  to  prove  it. 

My  first  witness  (said  Gov.  Brown)  shall  be  Mr.  Clay  him- 
self. In  a  speech  at  New  Orleans  after  the  war  had  com- 
menced, he  said,  "  and  when  I  see  around  me  to-night  Gen. 


A 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  209 

Brooke  and  other  old  friends  I  feel  half  inclined  to  ask  for 
some  little  nook  or  corner  in  the  army  in  which  I  might  serve 
in  avenging  the  wrongs  of  my  country."     Now  Mr.  Clay  was 
old — the  fires  of  his  youth  had  gone  out,  but  when  he  thought 
over  the  wrongs  of  his  country,  he  earnestly  desired  to  avenge 
them.     My  next  witness  shall  be  General  Taylor.     In  his  pro- 
clamation opening  the  war  on  Mexico, — a  proclamation  inten- 
ded to  satisfy    all  christian  and   enlightened  nations   of  the 
earth   as   to  the  justice   of  our   cause,  he   expressly  states: 
"For  many  years  our  citizens  have  been  subjected  to  repeated 
insults  and  injuries — our  vessels  and  cargoes  have  been  seized 
and  confiscated — our  merchants  have    been  plundered  and 
maimed  and  imprisoned  without  cause  and  without  repara- 
tion.    Our  late  effort  to  terminate  all  difficulties  by  peaceful 
negotiations  has  been  rejected  by  Parades,  and  our  minister  of 
peace  who  your  rulers  agreed  to  receive,  has  been  treated  with 
indignity  and  insult,  and  Parades  has  declared  that  war  exists 
between  us.     This  war  first  proclaimed  by  him,"  &c.     Now 
here  is  an  enumeration  of  the  wrongs,  only  alluded  to  by  Mr. 
Clay.     Let  me  not  be  told  that  this  proclamation  was  made 
out  at  Washington  and  was  not  written  by  Gen.  Taylor.     If 
it  had  contained  one  fact  that  he  did  not  know  to  be  true 
Gen,  Taylor  would  have  signed  it  "  by  order  of  the  War  De- 
partment."    But  as  every   word   was  true — as  Gen.  Taylor 
knows  it  to  be  true,  he  signs  his  name,  makes  the  document  his 
own,  and  sends  it  forth  to  the  world,  under  his  own  proper 
name  and  signature. 

But  (said  Gov.  Brown,)  this  recital  of  our  wrongs  is  fully 
sustained  by  Mr.  Allen  A.  Hall,  editor  of  the  Nashville  Whig, 
who  said,  on  the  28th  May,  "  that  we  had  a  just  claim  of  long 
standing  against  Mexico,  for  not  less  than  six  millions  of  dol- 
lars for  wanton  spoliations  committed  by  her  on  the  property 
of  our  citizens."  He  further  adds  that  she  refuses  to  receive 
our  ministers  sent  to  settle  all  difficulties  "  after  having 
promised  to  do  so."  Here  was  a  theme  on  which  my  competi- 
tor might  have  poured  out  the  indignant  eloquence  of  his  soul 
against  the  injustice  of  Mexico.  Instead  of  the  widow  scene 
which  he  so  often  describes  with  a  tearful  eye,  in  order  to  throw 
some  censure  on  his  own  government,  here  one  was  founded  on 
15 


fc-* 


210  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

a  stern  reality,  which  might  have  moved  the  hardest  heart. 
Why  did  he  not  draw  you  the  picture  of  some  weeping 
widow — shivering  in  her  hovel,  with  her  half  starved  and 
half  naked  orphans  around  her.  Who  is  she  ?  She  is  the 
widow  of  one  of  those  American  citizens,  mentioned  by  Gen. 
Taylor  and  Mr.  Allen  A.  Hall,  who  had  been  first  plundered 
of  all  that  he  had  in  the  world,  then  imprisoned  without  cause 
in  the  mines  of  Mexico,  until  exposed  in  the  cold  damp  vaults, 
far  from  his  wife  and  children,  who  are  now  left  without  a 
home  or  a  shelter,  to  live  on  the  cold  and  doubtful  charities  of 
the  world.  Here  is  a  picture  from  real  life,  and  I  call  on  you 
to  join  me  in  denouncing  that  Mexican  injustice  and  tyranny 
that  struck  so  foul  a  blow  on  one  of  our  countrymen. 

But  (continued  Gov.  Brown,)  I  have  not  done  with  the  tes- 
timony of  Mr.  Hall  yet.  He  says  expressly  "  that  Mexico 
had  pursued  a  course  to  the  United  States  which  rendered  it 
imperative  on  the  latter  to  force  her  to  a  settlement  of  the 
grave  difficulties  existing  between  the  two  countries,"  and 
challenges  any  man  of  any  party  to  maintain  to  the  contrary. 
Yes,  Mr.  Hall  challenges  any  man  of  any  party  ;  as  much  as 
to  say  to  my  competitor,  "  I  don't  care  if  you  are  the  candidate 
of  the  whig  party,  I  am  the  Editor  of  the  whig  party  and  I 
challenge  even  you  to  controvert  my  position."  But  my 
competitor  has  taken  up  the  challenge  and  they  may  fight  it 
out  lustily  between  themselves. 

But  my  competitor  may  ask,  was  this  war  commenced  by  us 
for  this  indemnity  of  six  millions  ?  I  answer  that  we  did  not 
commence  it  all.  Mexico  commenced  it  by  an  invasion  for  the 
reconquest  of  Texas,  and  we  have  carried  it  on  "  for  indemnity 
for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future."  So  the  question 
still  recurs,  is  it  not  just  to  have  carried  it  on  for  these  pur- 
poses ?  After  the  battles  of  the  8th  and  9th  on  the  Rio 
Grande,  our  country  was  relieved,  it  is  true,  from  invasion  for 
the  present,  but  no  one  could  tell  how  soon  it  might  occur 
again.  Mexico  refused  to  negotiate  at  all,  or  even  hold  any 
sort  of  diplomatic  intercourse  with  us,  and  might  dash  her 
armies  back  upon  us  at  any  moment  she  might  please.  We 
were  therefore  bound  to  carry  on  the  war  first  commenced  by 
her  until  safe  and  honorable  peace  could  be  extorted  from  her? 


\* 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  211 

securing  us  against  future  invasion,  and  extorting  from  her 
that  indemnity  which  she  herself  had  often  acknowledged  to 
be  justly  due  to  our  people.  So  much  then  for  the  justice  of 
this  war. 

Gov.  Brown  further  maintained  that  it  is  a  war  of  self-de- 
fence against  invasion,  and  could  not,  therefore,  have  been 
avoided  without  dishonor.  Mexico  (said  the  Gov.)  declared 
this  war  first ;  Gen.  Taylor  tells  you  she  did.  She  not  only 
declared  it  first,  but  she  commenced  it  first ;  she  crossed  the  Rio 
Grande  in  the  night  time,  and  made  the  attack  on  Thornton's 
detachment,  killing  some  and  taking  others  prisoners.  This 
was  the  first  blood  shed  in  this  war.  What  next  ?  The  next 
day  they  way-laid  General  Taylor  on  the  road-side,  when  he 
was  passing  from  one  encampment  to  another,  and  made  an 
attack  upon  his  army,  and  the  battle  of  Palo  Alto  was  fought. 
This  was  the  second  time  that  the  blood  of  your  countrymen 
flowed  in  this  war.  What  next?  The  next  day  he  was 
assailed  by  the  Mexican  army  on  the  same  march  to  his  upper 
encampment,  and  the  battle  of  Resaca  de  la  Palma  was 
fought,  which  was  the  third  time  that  the  blood  of  your  coun- 
trymen was  made  to  flow  like  water  in  this  war.  Congress 
heard  the  news.  The  President  recommended  a  declaration 
of  war.  It  was  declared,  with  only  fourteen  dissenting  voices. 
The  nation  flew  to  arms,  and  more  than  200,000  of  our  coun- 
trymen offered  to  volunteer  to  drive  the  insolent  invader  from 
our  soil. 

And  now,  (said  the  Governor,)  my  competitor  every  day 
makes  an  argument  to  prove  that  this  march  over  the  Rio 
Grande  and  these  attacks  on  our  army  were  not  an  invasion 
of  our  country.  I  maintain  that  they  were,  and  will  now 
furnish  him  with  proof  that  he  never  will  be  able  to  overturn. 
When  Congress  heard  the  news  that  the  river  had  been  crossed 
and  our  army  attacked,  they  voted  ten  millions  of  dollars  and 
50,000  volunteers,  and  directed  the  President  "  to  prosecute 
said  war  to  a  speedy  and  successful  termination."  Mr.  Critten- 
den moved  to  strike  out  these  words  and  to  insert  the  following  : 
"  to  repel  invasion,  and  otherwise  prosecute  hostilities  until  the 
country  be  secured  from  the  danger  of  further  invasion  ;"  and 
Crittenden,  and  Corwin,  and  Barrow,  and  Berrien,  and  indeed 


212  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

every  whig  Senator  present,  voted  for  them  !  So  by  the  vote 
of  the  whole  whig  party  in  the  Senate,  when  the  Rio  Grande 
was  passed,  our  country  was  invaded.  Let  this  record  be 
transcribed  on  your  memories  ;  for  as  long  as  that  journal  ex- 
ists, so  long  must  it  prove  that  my  competitor  is  wrong — wrong 
in  saying  that  Mexico  extended  to  the  Neuces — wrong  in  say- 
ing that  Texas  did  not  extend  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Crittenden 
says  he  is  wrong ;  Berrien,  and  Archer,  and  Barrow,  and  all 
his  whig  friends  in  the  Senate,  declare  that  he  is  wrong.  Be- 
sides these,  his  friends,  Mr.  Adams,  and  Clay,  and  Webster, 
have  all  stated  that  Texas  did  extend  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Mr. 
Jefferson,  and  Mr.  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and  Jackson,  all  held 
the  same  thing ;  and  the  only  authority  relied  on  by  my  com- 
petitor is  Mr.  Senator  Benton,  in  his  speech  on  the  Tyler 
treaty.  Mr.  Benton,  in  that  speech  was  evidently  alluding  to 
the  upper  Rio  Grande,  not  the  lower  part,  on  which  the  army 
was  marched.  Judge  Breese,  a  Senator  from  Illinois,  making 
a  speech,  as  I  understand,  in  Mr.  Benton's  presence,  drew  this 
distinction  in  reference  to  Mr.  Benton's  speech,  between  the 
upper  and  lower  Rio  Grande,  without  correction  by  that  Sena- 
tor. With  that  distinction  Mr.  Benton  would  be  right — with- 
out it  he  would  be  wrong,  and  the  only  man  of  distinction  in 
all  America  who,  to  my  knowledge,  holds  a  different  doctrine. 
My  competitor  should  remember  that  Mr.  Benton  was  speak- 
ing against  the  boundary  of  the  Tyler  treaty,  when  annexa- 
tion was  rejected.  It  was  afterward  accomplished,  under  reso- 
lution for  which  Mr.  Benton  voted,  and  to  which  he  made  what 
he  considered  an  important  amendment.  Now,  if  his  opinions 
were  such  as  my  competitor  ascribes  to  him,  how  could  he 
have  finally  voted  for  annexation  as  he  did  ? 

But  I  proceed,  said  Gov.  Brown,  to  give  some  further  evi- 
dences that  Texas  as  annexed  to  the  United  States  did  extend 
to  the  Rio  Grande.  1st.  I  rely  on  old  maps  showing  that  river 
to  have  been  the  boundary  of  Louisiana.  2d.  On  old  histories 
referred  to  by  our  negotiators  in  relation  to  this  fact.  3d. 
That  after  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  the  whole  Mexican  army 
was  ordered  out  of  Texas,  and  over  the  Rio  Grande,  and  never 
did  return,  and  make  any  reconquest  of  any  portion  of  the 
country  on  the  east  side  of  that  river.     Now  why  did  Texas 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  213 

establish  her  independence  up  to  the  Colorado  ?  Only  be- 
cause she  drove  her  enemies  over  that  river.  Why  up  to  the 
Nueces  ?  Only  because  she  drove  her  enemies  over  that  river. 
Why  up  to  the  Rio  Grande  ?  Only  because  she  drove  them  over 
the  Rio  Grande.  Why  no  further  than  that  river  ?  Because 
she  drove  them  no  further.  I  rely  not  on  the  treaty  made  with 
Santa  Anna,  when  a  prisoner.  That  might  possibly  be  void, 
but  I  rely  on  the  fact  that  the  Mexican  troops  did  actually 
withdraw  from  the  country,  clear  over  the  Rio  Grande  river, 
and  never  after  successfully  re-invaded  it.  4th.  That  when  Gen. 
Wool,  (the  Mexican  General  of  that  name)  was  about  to  invade 
Texas,  the  year  before  annexation  was  accomplished,  he  is- 
sued a  proclamation  clearly  indicating  where  Mexico  consider- 
ed the  boundary  of  Texas  to  be.  His  work  of  death  and 
destruction  was  to  begin,  the  moment  he  passed  one  league 
on  this  side  of  the  Rio  Grande — one  league  on  this  side,  and 
every  living  soul  that  he  might  meet  with  was  to  be  treated  as 
Texan  rebel.  But  why  not  those  who  lived  on  the  river  and 
within  one  league?  Because  he  knew  that  those  persons  were 
mere  temporary  occupants  of  huts,  near  the  river  for  purposes 
of  fishing,  or  in  some  way  concerned  in  the  navigation  of  that 
river.  Such  temporary  occupants,  he  knew  to  be  Mexicans  in 
fact  although  living  in  Texas,  and  therefore  spared  them  in  his 
bloody  decree. 

I  have,  said  Gov.  Brown,  one  other  Mexican  authority, 
which  I  will  now  present  to  my  competitor.  After  the  battle 
of  Buena  Vista  an  American  officer  had  occasion  to  be  sent  to 
Santa  Anna's  quarters,  and  something  was  said  about  Gen. 
Taylor's  desire  for  peace.  His  reply  should  forever  engrave 
itself  on  the  memory  of  my  competitor,  "  we  can  never  say 
anything  of  peace  whilst  the  Americans  are  on  this  side  of  the 
BravoP  Not  whilst  the  Americans  are  on  this  side  of  the 
Nueces — no,  no,  whilst  they  are  on  this  side  of  the  Bravo.  Will 
my  competitor  out  Herod  Herod  ?  Will  he  beat  Santa  Anna 
himself,  in  surrendering  more  of  his  own  country  than  Santa 
Anna  is  willing  to  claim  !  But  he  insists  that  several  of  the 
Mexican  States  had  been  extended  in  modern  times  over  the 
Rio  Grande,  as  far  as  the  Nueces.  Well,  and  suppose  for 
the   sake  of  argument  only,  that  they  had   been.     In  1835 


214  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

the  States  had  been  all  consolidated  by  the  usurpations  01 
Santa  Anna;  and  when  Texas  was  invaded  she  drove  her 
enemies  back,  and  drove  them  back,  as  I  have  already 
shown,  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  so  obliterated  the  boun- 
daries of  so  much  of  Tamaulipas  as  ever  projected  on 
this  side  of  that  river.  By  revolution  as  to  part  and  by  con- 
quest if  you  please  of  the  balance,  the  whole  republic  from  the 
Sabine  to  the  Rio  Grande  became  free  and  independent. 

That  republic  by  her  constitution  claimed  up  to  the  Rio 
Grande — she  laid  off  counties  up  to  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
county  of.  San  Patricio,  in  which  Corpus  Christi  is  situated,  ex- 
tends from  the  Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  up  the  latter 
river  more  than  one  hundred  miles.  That  county  votes,  I  un- 
derstand, about  one  hundred  and  forty  or  one  hundred  and  eighty 
votes,  and  within  that  county  resides  one  of  the  present  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Congress.  In  this  very  disputed  territory! 
How  came  he  to  be  recognized  as  a  member,  if  the  United 
States  did  not  extend  to  the  Rio  Grande  ?  We  may  well  ima- 
gine how  your  Congress  would  be  startled  by  the  claim  of  a 
Mexican,  to  a  seat  in  the  American  Congress.  His  credentials 
are  presented,  his  residence  in  the  county  of  San  Patricio,  in 
the  very  territory  now  in  dispute,  is  avowed,  and  yet  the  whole 
house  hails  him  as  a  true  and  lawful  member  of  that  illustrious 
body.  Is  this  no  recognition  of  boundary  to  that  river,  by  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  ?  However  this  may  be,  I  will 
give  another  directly  and  unequivocally  on  the  point ;  previ- 
ously to  the  march  of  our  army  to  the  Rio  Grande,  Congress 
had  declared  that  disputed  territory  a  collection  district,  by  es- 
tablishing a  custom  house  at  Corpus  Christi,  west  of  the  Nueces, 
and  appointed  a  proper  officer  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the 
station,  Here  is  direct,  positive  and  undeniable  evidence  that 
Congress,  our  Congress,  recognized  Texas  as  a  State,  west  of 
the  Nueces.  But  how  far  west  of  the  Nueces  ?  Certainly  far 
enough  to  take  in  the  town  of  Corpus  Christi.  But  no  farther? 
Yes  as  far  west  as  our  population  extended  in  the  county  of 
San  Patricio.  How  far  was  that  ?  The  answer  of  to  day,  will 
not  be  the  answer  of  to  morrow,  for  settlers  are  widening  out 
and  settling  north  and  west,  in  that  county,  every  day,  and  is 
it  possible,  that  we  have  no  more  fixed  and  certain  boundary 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  215 

up  to  which  the  President  can  extend  the  protection  of  our 
arms  than  this  !  And  yet  so  runs  the  argument  of  my  com- 
petitor— on,  Texas,  settled,  populated  Texas,  now  goes  far 
west  of  the  Nueces — her  counties  have  gone  clear  to  the  Rio 
Grande  river,  her  land  officers  have  gone  there,  her  judicial 
districts  have  gone  there,  and  her  judges  take  jurisdiction  over 
persons  and  property  there  ;  up  to  that  boundary,  the  Presi- 
dent was  bound  by  law,  by  his  oath,  by  the  constitution  to  ex- 
tend the  protection  of  your  armies. 

Gov.  Brown  said,  that  the  point  on  which  his  competitor 
had  lately  dwelt  with  the  greatest  emphasis,  was,  that  "  the 
war  was  brought  on  by  James  K.  Polk,  in  ordering  the  army 
to  be  marched  to  the  Rio  Grande,"  "  that  whether  that  river 
were  the  proper  boundary  or  not,  it  was  left,  in  the  resolution 
of  annexation,  an  open  boundary,  and  Congress  alone,  and  not 
the  President,  could  say  where  the  boundary  was." 

To  all  this  Gov.  Brown  replied,  that  his  competitor  had  main- 
tained this  long  enough,  others  had  maintained  it  long 
enough,  and  that  it  was  now  high  time  to  stop  it.  "I 
maintain,"  said  Governor  Brown,  "  that  this  western  bound- 
ary was  not  left  open  at  all — not  open  for  a  moment — that  it 
was  closed  up  forever — closed  as  to  Texas,  closed  as  to  the 
United  States,  closed  as  to  the  whole  world,  but  only  liable  to 
be  opened  at  some  future  time,  if  any  foreign  government 
should  choose  to  open  it."  He  repeated,  "  closed  now  against 
the  whole  world,  but  only  liable  to  be  opened  and  settled  if 
Mexico  should  desire  it."  He  then  read  the  resolution  of  an- 
nexation, thus :  "Congress  doth  consent  that  the  territory  pro- 
perly included  within  and  rightfully  belonging  to  the  Republic 
of  Texas,  may  be  erected  into  a  new  State,"  &c;  "  said  State 
to  be  formed  subject  to  the  adjustment  of  this  Government  of 
all  questions  of  boundary  that  may  arise  with  other  Govern- 
ments." These  are  the  words — '*  that  may  arise" — may  here- 
after of  course.  But  of  course  if  no  such  question  should  ever 
arise,  Texas  stands  in  the  Union,  fully  in  the  Union,  a  part  of 
the  United  States,  to  be  defended  from  invasion  like  all  other 
States,  no  further  action  of  Congress  being  at  all  necessary  in 
relation  to  her  boundary.  With  what  boundary  was  Tennes- 
see admitted  into  the  Union  ?     With  that    mentioned  in  her 


216  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

constitution.  With  what  boundaries  were  Iowa  and  Wiscon- 
sin admitted?  That  mentioned  in  their  constitutions.  So 
Texas  was  admitted,  with  the  boundary  mentioned  in  her  con- 
stitution ;  but  if  or  provided  any  question  of  boundary  should 
be  raised  by  any  other  Government,  then  and  not  till  then, 
could  the  boundary  be  opened  for  further  settlement.  Now 
had  any  Government,  up  to  this  time,  attempted  or  desired  to 
open  the  question  of  the  western  boundary  of  Texas?  None 
whatever.  We  thought  Mexico  might  wish  to  open  it,  and  sent 
a  minister  there  for  the  purpose  ;  but  she  drove  him  away,  say- 
ing she  had  no  question  of  boundary  to  open — she  was  aiming, 
to  reconquer  Texas,  not  to  the  Nueces,  but  the  whole  of  Texas, 
even  to  the  Sabine.  Well,  we  sent  him  again  ;  he  was  driven 
off,  and  again  the  cry  was,  "  the  whole  of  Texas  or  none." 

Now  with  this  plain  statement  of  facts,  who  can  contend  that 
the  boundary  of  Texas  was  left  open  for  the  future  action  of 
Congress  ?  Look  to  the  absurdity  and  cruelty  of  such  an  ar- 
gument. The  President  sends  our  army  to  the  Sabine.  There 
Gen.  Taylor  takes  his  position,  and  he  and  his  brave  army 
look  over  to  the  west.  They  see  the  Mexican  army  pass  over 
the  Rio  Grande  and  invade  Texas.  Can't  we  fight  them  now? 
"  No,"  says  my  competitor's  argument, "  the  western  boundary 
is  open  and  unsettled."  But  look !  they  cross  the  Nueces  ! 
Can't  we  fight  them  now  ?  "No,"  says  my  competitor's  argu- 
ment, "  the  western  boundary  is  open."  But  look !  they  have 
crossed  the  Colerado  !  the  towns  are  all  on  fire  !  The  Texan 
people  are  fleeing  before  them  !  Can't  we  fight  them  now  ? 
"  No,  not  yet,"  says  my  competitor's  argument,  "  the  western 
boundary  is  open  !"  But  look !  yonder  are  the  Mexican  lancers, 
striking  down  and  piercing  through  the  poor  decripedold  men, 
unable  to  flee  from  them,  and  yonder  the  licentious  Mexican  is 
laying  his  rude  hands  on  the  shrieking  female — we  almost 
hear  their  screams  under  the  outrage — O!  can  we  not  fight 
them  now  ?  "  No,  no,"  says  my  competitor's  argument,  "  not 
yet,  not  yet ;  the  ivesternboundary  is  open!"  Good  God  !  have 
reason  and  justice  and  humanity  fled  the  earth,  that  such  doc- 
trines are  maintained  among  an  enlightened  people  ? 

Such  mustbe  the  consequences  at  least  of  my  competitor's  ar- 
guments on  this  point. 


THE   MEXICAN  WAR.  217 

And  now  (said  Gov.  Brown)  I  come  to  ask  the  question, 
who  advised  the  march  of  our  army  to  the  Rio  Grande  ?  General 
Taylor  himself  !  In  his  letter  of  the  4th  October,  1845,  he 
says  :  "  For  these  reasons,  our  position  thus  far  has,  I  think 
been  the  best  possible.  But  now  that  the  entire  force  will  soon 
be  concentrated,  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  the  views 
of  Government  will  be  best  carried  out  by  our  remaining  at 
this  point.  It  is  with  great  deference  that  I  make  any  sugges- 
tion on  topics  that  may  become  matter  of  delicate  negotia- 
tion, but  if  our  Government,  in  settling  the  question  of  boundary 
makes  the  line  of  the  Rio  Grande  an  ultimatum,  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  settlement  will  be  greatly  facilitated  and  hastened 
by  our  taking  possession  at  once  of  one  or  two  suitable  points 
on  or  quite  near  that  river.  Our  strength  and  state  of  prepa- 
ration should  be  displayed  in  a  manner  not  to  be  mistaken. 
However  salutary  may  be  the  effect  produced  upon  the  border 
people  by  our  presence  here  (Corpus  Christi,)  we  are  too  far  from 
the  frontier  to  impress  the  government  of  Mexico  with  our 
readiness  to  vindicate  by  force  of  arms,  if  necessary,  our  title 
to  the  Rio  Grande.  *  *  *  Our  advance  to  the  Rio  Grande 
Will  itself  produce  a  powerful  effect,  and  it  may  be  that  the 
common  navigation  of  the  river  will  not  be  disputed." 

Here  you  see  (said  Gov.  Brown)  he  advised  the  march  as 
well  calculated  not  to  provoke  war,  but  to  preserve  peace. 
He  advised  it  as  necessary  and  proper  to  vindicate  our  title  to 
that  river  and  to  secure  its  joint  navigation.  He  advised  as 
an  able  General  and  a  wise  statesman.  The  President  followed 
it,  and  now  the  strange  spectacle  is  presented,  that  Taylor, 
who  gave  the  advice,  is  to  be  exalted  to  the  Presidency,  whilst 
the  President,  who  followed  it,  is  to  be  pulled  down  with  dis- 
honor from  it.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  Taylor  only  ad- 
vised it  in  the  event  that  the  Government,  in  settling  the  boun- 
dary, should  make  the  Rio  Grande  an  ultimatum;  for  I  have 
shown  that  the  Government  had  so  settled  and  negotiated 
the  boundary — in  other  words,  that  Congress  had  so  settled  it. 
Settled  it  by  receiving  a  member  residing  in  the  disputed  terri- 
tory— settled  it  by  having  been  notified  for  more  than  a  year 
that  the  American  army  had  been  located  in  the  disputed  ter- 
ritory.    Such  information  had  been  reported  to  Congress,  and 


218  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

was  lying  upon  the  table  of  every  member  of  that  body  from 
day  to  day  for  months  together,  without  complaint  and  with- 
out objection.  If  then  the  Government,  and  not  the  President, 
had  the  settlement  of  that  question,  the  government  had  set- 
tled it,  repeatedly  and  conclusively  settled  it. 

In  the  face  of  these  recorded  and  undeniable  facts,  my  com- 
petitor still  insists  that  the  march  to  the  Rio  Grande  was  the 
cause  of  the  war,  and  cites  Mr.  Calhoun  as  his  authority.  Mr. 
Calhoun  did  say  so  in  one  of  his  speeches,  but  I  have  shown 
my  competitor  several  times  that  he  was  corrected  the  very 
next  morning  by  the  publication  of  Marks'  letter.  Marks  was 
not  authorized  by  Gen.  Arista  to  communicate  any  thing  to 
Gen.  Taylor.  He  was  acting  on  his  own  individual  opinions 
and  resposibility. 

So  much  for  Mr.  Calhoun's  authority. 

What  are  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Benton,  my  competitor'3  fa- 
vorite witness  as  to  boundary,  as  to  the  march  of  the  army  to 
that  river?  "  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  consider  the  march  to  the 
Rio  Grande,  to  have  been  the  cause  of  the  war,  any  more  than 
I  consider  the  British  march  on  Concord  and  Lexington,  to  have 
been  the  cause  of  American  revolution,  or  the  crossing  of  the 
Rubecon  by  Caesar  to  have  been  the  cause  of  the  civil  war  in 
Rome.  The  march  to  the  Rio  Grande,  brought  on  the  collision 
of  arms,  but  so  far  from  being  the  cause  of  the  war,  it  was 
itself  the  effect  of  these  causes."  This  authority  of  his  fa- 
vorite witness,  throws  my  competitor  back  on  the  position,  that 
after  all,  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  the  true  cause  of  this 
Mexican  war.  In  assuming  this  position,  his  competitor  dif- 
ferred  with  all  his  whig  friends  from  Tennessee,  and  with 
Messrs.  Ewing,  Gentry,  Crozier,  and  Milton  Brown  in  partic- 
ular. Gov.  B.  read  from  the  speech  of  the  latter  gentleman, 
declaring  "  that  he  took  issue  with  any  one  who  assumed  that 
position."  How  his  competitor  would  settle  that  issue,  so 
boldly  tendered  by  Mr.  M.  Brown,  when  he  reached  the  Wes- 
tern District,  he  did  not  pretend  to  know ;  but  he  was  willing  to 
take  it,  that  annexation  was  the  cause  of  the  war,  and  would 
now  demand  of  his  competitor  why  he  and  his  party  friends 
of  this  State  had  annexed  her  ?  When  John  Tyler  first  pro- 
posed it,  they  rejected  it — they  voted  down  his  treaty  and  said 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.         -  219 

the  right  time  had  not  arrived  for  its  consummation.  The 
following  winter,  they  came  forward  and  declared  that  the  right 
time  had  then  come,  and  Mr.  Milton  Brown  and  Senator  Fos- 
ter offered  resolutions  in  their  respective  houses  for  the  con- 
summation of  that  great  measure.  In  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, every  whig  from  this  State  finally  voted  for  them.  Mr. 
Brown  wrote  to  Gov.  Jones  that  his  proposition  was  "  an  ori- 
ginal whig  proposition,  and  received  only  a  reluctant  support 
from  the  democrats."  He  wrote,  also,  that  what  he  had  done 
"  was  entirely  consistent  with  the  course  and  the  doctrines  of 
the  whig  party  in  the  Presidential  campaign  of  the  preceding 
summer,  and  that  Texas  was  then  free  as  any  nation  on  the 
globe."  Well,  does  not  all  this  show  that  annexation,  though 
at  first  rejected  by  the  whigs  of  this  State,  was  finally  adopted 
and  sanctioned  by  them  ?  I  repeat  (said  Gov.  B.)  that  it  was 
finally  adopted  and  sanctioned  by  them.  Why,  sir,  did  you  do  so? 
Why,  if  you  knew  that  war  would  come  of  it,  did  you  do  so  ? 
You  prophecied  that  if  done  in  the  way  and  at  the  time  it  was 
proposed  by  Mr.  Tyler,  with  the  sanction  and  approbation  of 
Gen.  Jackson  and  the  democratic  party,  that  war  would  be  the 
consequence.  But  you  never  did  prophecy  that  it  would  pro- 
duce war  if  done  at  the  time  and  in  the  manner  proposed  by 
Mr.  Foster  and  Mr.  Milton  Brown.  You  said  expressly  to  the 
contrary.  Now,  it  was  finally  done  in  your  own  way,  and  in 
your  own  time,  and  still  you  cry  out  that  it  has  produced  the 
war  !  Well,  I  repeat  then,  why  did  you  do  it  ?  My  competi- 
tor (said  Gov.  Brown)  often  says  that  I  prophecied  falsely  when 
I  used  to  say  that  war  would  not  come  of  it.  Why,  sir,  you 
said  the  same  thing;  for  no  member  of  your  party  in  Congress 
from  this  State  ever  said  or  believed  that  war  would  come  of 
it  as  finally  adopted  upon  your  own  proposition.  It  was  only 
your  prophecy,  that  it  would  have  come  if  annexation  had  ta- 
ken place  at  that  time  and  in  the  manner  it  was  first  proposed. 
But  it  has  come,  says  my  competitor.  Aye,  it  has  come,  but 
not  of  annexation — not  of  the  march  of  the  army  to  the  Rio 
Grande — no,  it  has  come  of  the  course  pursued  by  you  and 
your  party.  Mexico  had  slumbered  for  nearly  ten  years  over 
her  title — she  had  heard  all  the  great  powers  of  Christendom 
declare  that  she  had  no  title ;    but  when  she  heard  from  my 


CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

competitor  and  his  party  in  1844  that  she  did  have  a  title  to 
Texas — that  it  would  be  downright  robbery  to  take  it  away  by 
annexation,  her  hopes  revived,  her  cupidity  was  awakened,  her 
thirst  for  power  and  dominion  over  a  portion  of  the  Anglo  Saxon 
race  was  increased  ;  and  thus  this  war,  with  all  its  debt  and 
horrors,  might  well  be  laid  at  the  door  of  my  competitor  and  his 
party  friends.  They  gave  "  aid  and  comfort"  to  Mexico  in  as- 
serting her  claim  to  Texas,  whatever  they  may  have  done  in 
the  way  of  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  her  in  maintaining  it  in 
this  war.  You,  sir,  said  Gov.  Brown,  by  your  speeches  and 
arguments,  and  your  whole  tribe  of  public  speakers,  in  1844, 
substantially  told  Mexico  to  assert  her  title — that  it  was  a 
good  one — so  good,  that  in  any  war  which  might  come  from  her 
asserting  it,  Heaven  itself  would  take  sides  with  her  against 
your  own  country.  And  now,  sir,  said  Gov.  B.,  if  war  has 
come  from  annexation,  it  was  your  annexation ;  and  if  your 
prophecies  that  war  would  come  have  been  fulfilled,  you  have 
wrought  their  fulfilment  by  encouraging  Mexico  to  assert  her 
claim.  That  assertion  of  her  claim,  is  this  very  war  which  we 
are  discussing. 

And  now,  said  Gov.  B.,  I  have  said  all  that  my  time  will  al- 
low on  the  justice  of  war — on  its  being  a  war  of  self  defence 
against  the  invasion  of  Mexico.  Let  me  now  ask  when  was 
the  justice  or  the  necessity  of  this  war,  first  questioned  in 
Tennessee?  Not  when  I  issued  my  proclamation  twelve  months 
ago,  for  volunteers  to  engage  in  it.  No,  not  then,  for  when 
I  called  for  three  thousand,  lo!  thirty  thousand  of  the  brave 
and  hardy  sons  of  Tennessee,  rushed  to  our  standard.  Whigs 
and  Democrats  equally  and  alike,  rushed  forward  to  the  call. 
But  they  came  not  alone  !  fathers  and  mothers,  and  kindred, 
and  friends,  came  with  them  to  the  place  of  rendezvous,  to 
see  their  final  departure.  When  drawn  up  in  line,  just  before 
the  orders  were  given  to  embark  on  board  the  boats,  you  might 
have  seen  the  tall  fine  looking  young  volunteer,  leaving  the 
line  and  wending  his  way  to  some  group  stationed  on  the 
beach.  Where  is  he  going  ?  To  shake  hands  with  his  father 
for  the  last  time,  or  to  kneel  before  his  mother  to  receive  her 
last  blessings.  What  is  it  that  sustains  his  noble  heart,  at  such 
a  trying  moment?     It  is  the  proud  thought  that  although  part- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  221 

ing  with  his  nearest  and  best  friends,  he  is  going  to  fight   for 
his  country,  in  a  just  cause.     What  is  it,  that  makes  his  mother 
willing  to  give  up  her  child,  perhaps  her  only  child,  to  all  the 
hardships  and  all  the  perils  of  so  distant  and  so  hazardous   a 
campaign  ?     It  is   "  because  she  is  an  American  woman,  and 
would  surrender  not  only  her  child,  but   if  necessary,  would 
lay  down  her  own  life  for  the  service  of  her  country.     "  Go,  go 
my  son,  it  is  like  death  to  part  with  you,  but  go  and  drive 
back  the  insolent  invaders  of  our  soil,  and  if  necessary  carry 
the  war  to  the  enemy's  country."     The  parting  is  over,  and  the 
young  volunteer,  springs  back  into  line,  and  on  he  goes,  never 
once  doubting  that  he  is  going,  in  the  emphatic   language  of 
Mr.  Clay,  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  his  country.     So  went  forth 
our  brave  and  gallant  volunteers,  and  so  felt  and  thought  all  of 
their  kindred  and  friends,   who  were  left   behind.     But   one 
sentiment  then  pervaded  all  classes,  and  all  parties,  in  Ten- 
nessee.    When  did  you  first  hear  anything  to  the  contrary  of 
all  this  ?     It  was  when  Congress  was  about  to  assemble,  Mr. 
Webster  came  down  from  the  north,  like  a  roaring  lion,  crying 
"  impeach   the  President"  for  involving  our  country  in  war. 
The  whig  members  from  Tennessee  responding  too  readily  to 
Mr.  Webster's  sentiment,  cried  out,  this  is  James  K.  Polk's 
war;   and  my  competitor,  responding  too  readily  to   them, 
boldly  cries  out  in  this  very  canvass,  "  this  is  James  K.  Polk's 
war,   waged  by    him   to    glorifiy   his    administration" — "  an 
unnecessary   war    brought    about    by     an     unconstitutional 
order    of    the    President    marching  the    army    to    the    Rio 
Grande."      Sirs,   this  sudden  questioning  of  the  justice,  the 
necessity  and  propriety  of  this  war,  is  the  work  of  whig  poli- 
ticians in  Congress — not  of  the  whig  party  of  the  country  gen- 
erally.    No,  God  forbid.     But  the  work  of  the  whig  politicians 
of  the  last  Congress.     They  saw  the  old  issues  one  by  one 
evaporating  before  them.     The  bank  was  dead;  distribution 
was  dead  ;  the  protective  tariff  of  1842  was  dead  ;   and  nothing 
seemed  to  be  left  to  them  but  a  new  party,  with  new  issues 
and  new  elements  to  compose  it.     I  firmly  and  conscientiously 
believe  that  such  a  scheme  was  formed  at  Washington,  and  is 
now  in  the  process   of  consummation  in  the  United  States. 
Will  Tennessee  now  unite  in  the  formation  of  any  such  anti- 


222  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

war  party?  Will  either  whigs  or  democrats,  go  into  such  an 
arrangement  ?  You  belong  to  no  such  party  now.  You  have 
escaped  from  such  a  vortex  as  yet.  Will  my  countrymen  ever 
go  into  it,  by  uniting  with  those  who  denounce  this  war  as  un- 
just, and  unnecessary,  or  a  war  of  aggression,  on  a  weak,  help- 
less and  innocent  nation?  I  appeal  to  the  glory  of  the  past — 
to  the  honor  of  the  present,  and  to  all  the  proud  hopes  of  the 
future  to  prevent  it. 

And  why  should  you  unite  with  those  who  declare  this  war 
to  be  James  K.  Polk's  war  ?  Did  James  K.  Polk  declare  it  ? 
No  he  did  not — you  know  he  did  not.  He  advised  it  and  Con- 
gress declared  it.  So  James  Madison  advised  the  war  of  1812 
and  Congress  declared  it.  Then  it  was  called  James  Madi- 
son's war  by  the  blue  light  federalists  of  the  north,  now  it  is 
called  James  K.  Polk's  war.  Why  not  call  it  Mr.  E  wing's 
war,  Mr.  Gentry's,  Mr.  Crozier's,  or  Mr.  Cocke's,  or  Mr.  Milton 
Brown's  war.  They  all  voted  for  it,  and  declared  on  the  face 
of  the  bill  that  it  was  brought  about  by  the  act  of  Mexico. 
Now,  my  competitor  will  have  it  to  be  James  K.  Polk's  war, 
brought  about,  not  by  any  wrongful  act  of  Mexico,  but  by  the 
unconstitutional  order  of  the  President.  Not  by  any  wrongful 
act  of  Mexico  !  Gracious  God,  look  at  this  very  invasion.  It 
was  to  re-enslave  a  brave  and  gallant  people  who  had  achieved 
their  independence  by  years  of  blood  and  suffering.  They 
had  achieved  it  by  the  acknowledgment  of  nearly  all  the  civil- 
ized nations  of  the  earth — they  had  achieved  it  by  the  solemn 
act  of  our  country  admitting  them  into  our  glorious  Union — 
they  had  achieved  it,  and  the  flag  of  our  country  proudly 
waved  over  them  for  their  safety  and  protection.  To  invade 
such  a  people,  for  the  purpose  of  re-enslaving  them,  was  the 
greatest  outrage  recorded  in  the  annals  of  crime  and  of  blood. 
Not  to  have  resisted  and  prevented  the  foul  deed,  would  have 
disgraced  and  dishonored  this  proud  Republic  forever.  You 
did  resist,  and  the  uniform  success  of  your  arms,  furnishes 
proof  that  justice  and  Heaven  are  on  your  side.  You  did  re- 
sist, and  the  noble  men  who  proudly  bore  your  banner  at  Mon- 
terey, Vera  Cruz,  and  Cerro  Gordo  are  now  at  home  in  your 
midst.  How  did  you  greet  them  on  their  return  ?  How  did 
the  old  man,  leaning  on  his  staff,  hobbling  his  way  down  to  the 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


223 


river  bank  to  receive  his  son,  how  did  he  receive  him  ?  Did  he 
say  to  him,  "  welcome  back  my  son,  welcome  back ;  but  would 
to  God  you  had  never  gone.  I  have  lately  learned  from  our 
members  of  Congress,  from  our  whig  candidate  for  Governor, 
and  from  the  public  papers,  that  you  have  been  fighting  in  the 
war  of  James  K.  Polk  against  a  weak  and  innocent  nation, 
and  I  fear  that  all  the  blood  you  have  shed  will  some  day  cry, 
like  Abel's  from  the  ground  against  you."  Oh !  did  he  give 
him  such  a  greeting  as  this  ?  If  he  did,  that  son  had  rather 
have  died  on  the  bloodiest  field  of  Mexico,  than  to  have  heard 
such  a  rebuke  from  the  lips  of  one  whom  he  so  much  honored 
and  loved.  But  no,  he  gave  him  no  such  salutation.  You 
kindled  bonfires  and  illuminated  all  your  dwellings  on  their 
return.  Honor  and  kindness,  and  every  thing  that  gratitude 
could  bestow  was  theirs.  Would  you  now  pluck  one  proud 
feather  from  the  war  plume  of  the  soldier  by  telling  him  that 
all  his  toils  and  labors  and  suffering  had  been,  not  to  serve 
his  country,  but  only  to  glorify  the  administration  of  a  mere 
man  ?  And  what  of  that  brave  and  gallant  soldier  who  has 
not  and  will  never  return  ?  He  fought  hard  and  nobly  in  the 
battle — at  last  he  is  stricken  down  by  the  enemy.  There  he 
lies — his  manly  form  stretched  upon  the  earth,  the  glaze  of 
death  is  coming  over  his  eyeballs,  the  last  death  rattle  is  gurg- 
ling in  his  throat — he  is  dying  in  a  foreign  land,  far  from  home, 
and  kindred,  and  friends.  What  is  it  that  supports  him  in 
this  last  struggle  ?  What  is  it  but  the  hope  of  heaven  and  the 
consolation  of  dying  in  a  just  cause.  Oh  I  would  not  make 
a  speech  in  Congress,  or  anywhere  else,  that  might  rob  him  of 
that  hope  and  consolation,  or  shake  his  confidence  in  the  cause 
for  which  he  was  dying,  for  all  this  world  would  give  or  take 
from  me.  No,  no,  let  him  die  with  the  confidence  of  that  gal- 
lant volunteer  from  Illinois.  He  was  stretched  on  the  earth, 
stricken  down  by  the  enemy's  ball's — he  was  nearly  gone,  but 
his  hand  yet  clinched  the  trusty  sword  with  which  he  had  fought 
so  long  and  so  valiantly.  One  of  his  comrades  came  by  him 
in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  he  reached  him  his  sword — "  take 
it  my  friend,  it  can  be  no  more  service  to  me  now — take  it,  and 
tell  our  brave  comrades  to  fight  on,  fight  on,  our  cause  is  just." 
These  were  his  last  words  ;  and  oh,  that  they  were  written  in 


224  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

letters  of  gold  on  every  glorious  banner  that  has  been  unfurled 
in  this  war !     Tennessee  is  even  now  making  arrangements  to 
erect  a  monument  to  the  gallant  dead  who  have  fallen  in  battle 
in  this  war.     You  will  rear  (said  he)  the  massy  column  with  its 
lofty  summit  towering  to  the  skies.    You  will  engrave  the  name 
of  Allen  and  Elliot,  and  Martin,  Ewell,  and  Kirkpatrick,  and 
all  the  »est — but  with  what  honorable  memorial  of  their  glori- 
ous deeds.     A   very   distinguished  member  of  Congress  from 
Tennessee  comes  forward  with  his  inscription — "Died  at  Monte- 
rey, in  a  war  of  conquest  and  plunder."     Other  members  from 
this  State  propose  about  the  same  thing.    And  last  of  all  comes 
my  competitor  with  his  inscription.      What  is  it  ?    "  Died  at 
Monterey,  (or  Buena  Vista,)  in  the  year  1847,  in  an  unneces- 
sary war — in  James  K.  Polk's  war,  waged  by  him  to  glorify 
his   administration."      Oh!  (said  Gov.  Brown)   a  monument 
with  such  an  inscription  can  never  stand.     The  earth  will  heave 
up  her  bosom  and  by  some  mighty  earthquake  will  level  it  to 
the  ground ;  or  the  lightning  of  Heaven  will  descend  and  blast 
its  towering  column,  and  shiver  the  massy  rocks  that  compose 
it.     No,  no,  let  me  give  you  a  memorial  worthy  the  noble  deeds 
of  these  gallant  dead — 

"  How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest, 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest ; 
Here  honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  sod  that  wraps  their  clay  ; 
And  freedom  shall  awhile  repair 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  here." 

Gov.  Brown  said  :  Having  now  disposed  of  all  the  questions 
in  relation  to  the  war,  I  must  follow  my  competitor  in  his  long, 
and  loud,  and  numerous  complaints,  not  against  the  Mexicans, 
but  against  his  own  countrymen.  Congress  has  done  wrong, 
the  democrats  have  done  wrong,  the  President  has  done  wrong, 
every  body  has  done  wrong,  but  the  plunderers  and  murderers 
of  our  people.  Well,  what  has  Congress  done?  She  has 
repealed  the  protective  tariff  of  1842,  and  substituted  a  much 
lower  one  in  its  stead.  My  competitor  denounces  this  repeal 
and  vehemently  advocates  the  restoration  of  the  tariff  of  1842. 
Two    years    ago,  I  stood  on  this    very   spot,   and  before    a 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  225 

large  portion  of  this  very  assembly,  debated  this  subject 
with  my  then  talented  and  gallant  competitor.  What  did  he 
tell  you  ?  That  James  K.  Polk  did  not  intend  to  repeal  the 
high  tariff  of  1842 — that  he  would  not  dare  to  do  it — that 
James  Buchanan,  one  of  his  Cabinet,  would  not  allow  him  to 
do  it.  Well,  time  has  overruled  this  vain  prophecy,  and  we 
now  know  that  James  K.  Polk  did  intend  to  repeal  it ;  we  now 
know  that  he  did  dare  to  do  it,  and  that  James  Buchanan  did 
not  prevent  him.  What  next  did  he  tell  you  ?  "  To  hold  on 
to  the  tariff  of  1842  as  the  rock  of  your  salvation ;  that  if  you 
did  repeal  it,  it  would  shut  up  the  workshop  of  the  mechanic, 
bring  ruin  on  the  manufacturer,  strike  down  the  wages  of  labor, 
and  by  destroying  the  home  market  of  the  farmer,  would  leave 
him  with  a  large  surplus  of  his  crops  rotting  and  wasting  in 
his  granaries."  I  can  almost  yet  hear  his  eloquent  voice  call- 
ing on  you  to  hold  on  to  the  tariff  of  1842  ;  to  hold  on  to  it,  to 
save  the  mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  the  day  laborer,  and  the 
farmer.  Well,  gentlemen,  said  Gov.  Brown,  time  that  tries 
all  things — that  confirms  every  truth  and  explodes  every  error — 
has  again  interposed  and  convinced  you  whether  he  was  right 
or  wrong.  The  tariff  has  been  repealed,  and  now  what  do  we 
behold  ?  The  workshops  of  the  mechanic  have  not  been  closed ; 
the  blacksmith  with  his  lusty  strength  is  yet  striking  his  blows 
on  the  anvil ;  the  shoemaker  is  drawing  his  thread  ;  the  tailor 
is  plying  his  needle  ;  the  manufacturers  of  iron  and  wool  are 
dividing  their  wonted  profits  ;  whilst  the  farmers  and  planters 
are  realizing  prices  for  their  stock  and  their  produce  of  which 
avarice  itself  cannot  complain.  Let  us  pause  for  a  moment 
and  contemplate  the  wonderful  prosperity  which  the  people  of 
happy  America  are  this  day  enjoying.  Look  out  on  the  broad 
ocean  and  see  the  crowded  sails  of  commerce — bending  to 
every  breeze,  and  visiting  with  rapid  velocity  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  Glance  your  eye  along  the  course  of  your 
mighty  rivers,  and  behold  the  thousands  of  steamboats,  loaded 
down  to  their  guards  with  the  rich  productions  of  your  varied 
soils  and  climates.  Gaze  on  this  broad  and  fertile  land,  with 
its  teeming  abundance  gladdening  the  hearts  of  our  own  hus- 
bandmen and  sending  life  and  sustenance  to  the  famishing 
millions  of  Europe.  Whose  heart  does  not  heave  upward, 
16 


226  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

big  with  joy  and  gratitude  to  God,  for  so  much  goodness  and 
mercy  !  Would  my  competitor  mar,  if  not  totally  destroy,  all 
this  prosperity  and  happiness,  by  going  back  to  the  high  tariff 
and  low  prices  of  1842?  Daniel  Webster  himself  would  not 
do  it.  Daniel  Webster,  whose  deep  and  full  voice  was  heard 
at  the  preceding  session  of  Congress  crying  "  Repeal,  re- 
peal," would  not  do  it.  The  boldest  whigs  in  the  last  ses- 
sion of  Congress,  who  had  united  with  Mr.  Webster  in  the  cry 
of  "down  with  the  democratic  tariff  of  1846,"  would  not  do 
it.  They  met  at  Washington  city — at  the  time  and  place 
when  and  where  these  vows  of  repeal  were  all  to  be  fulfilled. 
But  when  they  saw  that  our  low  tariff  was  bringing  more 
money  into  the  Treasury  than  their  high  one — when  they  saw 
the  iron,  the  cotton,  the  wollen,  and  in  short  the  manufacturers 
of  every  sort,  the  mechanics  of  every  description,  the  farmers, 
and  planters,  and  stock  raisers,  were  all  more  prosperous  than 
they  ever  had  been  before — they  had  not  the  heart  to  repeal 
it — they  had  not  the  heart  to  try  to  repeal  it.  They  met,  and 
gazed  through  the  winter  with  wonder  and  astonishment  on 
the  swelling,  booming  prosperity  of  the  whole  country,  and 
finally  adjourned  and  went  home  without  once  offering  to  re- 
peal the  democratic  tariff  of  1846. 

Thus  it  is,  my  countrymen,  that  time,  experience,  and  actual 
knowledge,  have  now  settled  the  question  between  a  high  and 
low  tariff.  When  we  stood  on  reason  and  argument,  you 
would  not  believe  us.  Now  we  stand  on  time,  on  experience, 
and  actual  knowledge — your  knowledge,  your  experience. 
The  great  ocean  crowded  with  commerce  ;  your  mighty  rivers 
burdened  with  trade  ;  the  earth  with  all  her  mines  and  mineral, 
with  all  her  fruits,  and  herbs,  and  flowers,  all  tell  you  that  a 
low  tariff  is  the  best.  Can  my  competitor  stand  out  any  longer 
against  all  these  ? — against  the  roar  of  the  ocean,  the  mur- 
murs of  the  rivers,  the  soft  whispers  of  the  teeming  earth — 
against  light,  and  truth,  and  knowledge?  Nay,  nay ;  give  it 
up  and  return  to  the  ancient  faith  of  Tennessee — to  your  faith 
up  to  1837  ;  to  the  faith  of  Hugh  Lawson  White  and  Andrew 
Jackson,  Yield  obedience  to  that  light,  and  truth,  and  actual 
knowledge,  which  like  three  angel  forms  bending  from  some 
azure  cloud,  now  beckon  you  to  return  to  that  faith,  from  which 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  227 

you  never  should  have  departed.  But  I  cannot  leave  the  sub- 
ject of  the  tariff  until  I  have  furnished  you  with  the  great  fact 
which  my  competitor  now  denies,  and  which  weighs  down  like 
a  millstone  nearly  everything  which  can  be  said  against  the 
tariff  of  1846.  That  fact  is  that  the  duties  received  under  the 
present  tariff  for  the  first  five  or  six  months  largely  exceed  (pro- 
bably by  more  than  half  a  million  of  dollars,)  the  amount  re- 
ceived during  the  same  period  of  the  preceding  year  under  the 
tariff  of  1842. 

What  next  in  the  catalogue  of  charges  is  preferred  against 
Congress  by  my  competitor  ?  They  have  established  the  Inde- 
pendent Treasury.  Here,  also,  time,  experience,  and  actual 
knowledge,  have  done  sad  work  with  the  predictions  of  my 
competitor  and  his  party.  You  were  told  by  them  that  if  the 
Independent  Treasury  was  ever  established,  it  would  make  one 
currency  of  rags  for  the  people  and  another  currency  of  gold 
and  silver  for  the  office-holders — that  it  would  be  a  declaration 
of  war  against  the  Banks  by  banishing  specie  from  the  country; 
that  it  would  become  a  great  government  bank,  the  most 
odious,  they  said,  of  all  systems  of  banking;  that  it  would  be 
a  union  of  the  sword  and  the  purse,  and  enable  a  President 
to  stand  erect  like  Ccssar,  holding  in  the*  one  hand  the  sword 
of  the  nation  and  in  the  other  its  vast  treasuries,  while  pub- 
lic liberty  would  lie  lacerated  and  bleeding  at  his  unhallowed 
feet.  O,  what  a  picture  of  prophetic  despotism  !  Caesar, 
the  great  tyrant  of  Rome,  standing  aloft  with  a  bloody  sword 
in  his  hand,  while  public  liberty  lies  pale,  bleeding  and  dying 
at  his  feet ! 

Now  turn  your  eyes  slowly  and  gently  away  from  this  horri- 
ble and  bloody  picture,  to  the  cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Charleston,  New  Orleans,  and  St.  Louis,  where  the  Indepen- 
dent Treasury  is  quietly  and  gently  working  its  way,  collecting 
the  public  dues  of  the  nation  and  paying  them  out  to  our  sol- 
diers of  the  revolutionary  and  present  war — to  the  officers  and 
sailors  of  our  gallant  navy,  and  to  all  others  who  have  just  claims 
on  the  Government — accomplishing  it  all  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  our  fellow-citizens,  without  the  aid  of  any  bank  what- 
soever, and  inflicting,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Bell,  "  No  great 
harm  to  the  great  interests  of  either  trade,  agriculture,  or  com- 


228  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

merce."  Here  were  four  distinct  predictions  of  my  competitor, 
every  one  of  which  has  been  signally  disappointed.  The 
oldest  citizen  of  our  country  never  saw  the  currency  in  a 
sounder  or  better  condition — never  saw  our  exchanges  better 
regulated— never  saw  our  local  institutions  more  able  to  re- 
deem their  liabilities — never  saw  such  an  amazing  influx  of 
gold  and  silver  into  the  country  ;  still  my  competitor  tells  you 
it  was  not  borrowed  from  any  of  the  free  governments  of  the 
earth,  but  finds  its  origin  in  the  dark  and  despotic  governments 
of  the  old  world.  There  is  no  other  really  free  government 
on  earth  from  which  it  could  have  been  borrowed ;  and,  in  fact 
it  was  not  borrowed  from  any  government,  either  free  or  des- 
potic. It  dates  its  origin  in  our  own  free  and  happy  govern- 
ment— to  the  law  of  1789 — the  first  law  regulating  the  receipts 
and  disbursement  of  the  public  moneys.  The  law  of  1789, 
passed  in  the  very  morning  of  our  republic,  when  it  came  pure 
and  fresh  from  the  patriots  of  the  revolution — the  law  of  1789, 
signed  by  George  Washington  himself,  but  now  extended  and 
enlarged  only  to  suit  the  growth  and  increase  of  our  country. 
Such  is  the  Independent  Treasury  now  in  operation — precisely 
such  as  Mr.  Bell  said  it  would  be,  speaking  of  it  just  after  it 
had  been  passed  in  1840.  My  competitor  was  a  prophet,  Mr. 
Bell  was  an  historian — the  one  guessed  at  it,  the  other  knew  it. 
Thus  it  is  that  time  and  experience  have  likewise  settled  this 
great  question,  so  long  disputed  between  the  parties  of  this 
country. 

But  to  that  Athens  speech.  What  was  I  endeavoring  to  do 
in  making  that  part  of  it  which  he  reads  ?  You  and  your 
party  were  opposing  the  annexation  of  Texas — you  were  op- 
posing the  extension  of  our  laws  over  Oregon — you  were  im- 
peding, by  all  the  means  in  your  power,  the  growth  and  en- 
largement of  your  own  country.  I  wanted  to  liberalize  and 
enlarge  your  patriotism.  I  told  you  that  the  kings  of  the 
earth  were  every  day  plotting  your  destruction — that  they 
wished  to  put  out  the  light  of  freedom  in  the  new  world,  in 
order  to  reign  more  triumphantly  over  the  prostrate  rights  and 
liberties  of  mankind.  I  called  on  you  and  your  party  to  unite 
with  me  in  this  noble  work  of  self-defence — to  unite  with  me 
in  extending  the  area  of  freedom  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  229 

from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the  south,  to  the  great  inland  seas 
of  the  north.  To  induce  him  to  do  so,  I  called  on  him  to  go  up 
with  me,  in  imagination,  to  the  top  of  some  lofty  mountain  of 
the  west,  there  to  look  abroad  upon  the  goodly  inheritance 
which  God  had  given  us.  I  called  on  him  to  look  toward  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  gaze  upon  those  beautiful  constellations 
that  were  rising  np  there.  But  to  my  astonishment  he  would 
not  look  in  that  direction  at  all.  I  called  upon  him  to  look 
away  toward  Oregon — on  all  her  bays,  and  rivers,  and  harbors; 
but  I  soon  found  that  he  would  not  look  up  in  that  direction. 
Baffled  in  this,  I  called  upon  him  to  turn  his  face  to  the  east, 
where  tjhe  morning  sun  first  shines  upon  this  land  of  liberty — 
to  look  at  the  old  immortal  thirteen  who  achieved  our  inde- 
pendence ;  but,  to  my  utter  amazement,  he  would  not  look  even 
at  these.  Thereupon  I  turned  to  him  and  asked,  in  the  name 
of  conscience,  what  country  is  it  that  you  want  to  see  ?  "Oh, 
Governor,  only  show  me  some  country  where  some  day  or 
other  I  can  be  a  Governor !"  There,  now,  I  cried,  you  are  too 
hard  for  me.  Why,  Moses  and  Aaron  both  put  together  can 
never  show  you  such  a  sight  as  that. 

The  return  of  Santa  Anna  is  the  next  theme  of  unmeasured 
censure  against  the  President.  Why,  says  he,  was  not  his  re- 
turn prevented  ?  I  answer,  because  the  President  could  not 
have  prevented  it.  There  were  a  dozen  ports  through  which 
admittance  could  have  been  obtained.  But  why,  again  asks  my 
competitor,  did  the  President  give  orders  to  Com.  Connor  not  to 
try  to  prevent  his  return  ?  The  President  himself  has  answered 
the  question.  Parides  had  vowed  that  he  never  would  make 
peace  with  the  United  States.  A  strong  party  in  favor  of 
peace  was  determined  to  turn  him  out,  and  sent  to  Santa  Anna, 
at  Cuba,  to  come  home  and  assist  them  in  the  work.  Now  it 
would  have  been  a  strange  sight  to  see  the  President  shutting 
out  from  Mexico,  by  his  blockade,  the  very  man  who  had  been 
sent  for  to  come  home,  to  depose  Parides,  and  to  make  peace 
with  this  country.  The  public  records  and  journals  of  Mexico 
all  prove  the  fact  that  he  was  sent  for  expressly  for  these  pur- 
poses. But  again  :  no  attempt  was  made  to  prevent  his  return, 
because  Parides  and  many  of  the  priests  of  that  country  had 
formed  the  plan  of  turning  the  government  of  Mexico  into  a 


230  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

monarchy,  and  calling  a  prince,  from  either  France  or  England, 
in  order  more  effectually  to  prosecute  the  war  against  the  Uni- 
ted States.     This  great  fact  is  proved  by  the  proclamation  of 
Gen.  Taylor  at  the  commencement  of  this  war;  it  is  confirmed 
by  the    proclamation  of  Gen.  Scott  to  the   Mexican  people 
after  the  late  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and  also  by  the  corres- 
pondence of  Mr.   Slidell,  our  minister  at  Mexico,   frequently 
read  by  my  competitor.     It  is  a  great  fact.     A  monarchy  es- 
tablished on  this  continent !  at  the  very  door  of  our  Republic  ! 
A  monarchy  sustained  by  an  army  of  perhaps  two  hundred 
thousand  men  to  fight  against  you  in  this  war!     Santa  Anna 
was  called  for  by  the  party  opposed  to  this  scheme,  to  come  home 
and  defeat  it.     Who  did  not  then  wish  to   see  it  defeated  ? 
All  our  Presidents,  from  Mr.  Monroe  down,  with  perhaps  one 
exception,  had  solemnly  declared,  that  such  a  step  ought  to  be 
and  would  be  opposed  by  our  Republic  at  the   very  mouth  of 
the  cannon.      Now  if   President  Polk  had  prevented   Santa 
Anna's  return,  and  this  monarchical  scheme  had  been  accom- 
plished, who  of  his  enemies  would  not  have  exclaimed,  quite 
horror  stricken,  behold  the   short-sighted  imbecility-  of  your 
President !     But  my  competitor  objects  to  his  return,  because 
by  it  the  war  has  been  protracted.      No,  sir,  no;  not  by  his  re- 
turn.    It  has  been  protracted  by  the  course  and  conduct  of  your 
own  great  leaders  in  politics.     By  Webster,  Corwin,  Severance, 
and  a  host  of  others,  whose  speeches  and  writings  have  been 
published  throughout  Mexico.     Hear  what  the  Mexican  papers 
declare  about  Mr.  Webster  and    others:  "By  the  last  arrival 
from  New  Orleans,  we  have  been  placed  in  possession  of  late 
papers  from  the  United  States,  and  a  majority  of  them  magnan- 
imously denounce  and  condemn  this  war  against  this  country 
(Mexico)  as  infamous,  unholy,  and  unrighteous.     Daniel  Web- 
ster, the  most  liberal  and  enlightened  statesman  of  the  coun- 
try, says  that  the  expenses  of  the  war  are  more  than  half  a  mil- 
lion a  day,  and  he  has  introduced  resolutions  into  the  Senate 
to  impeach  the  cowardly  Jim  Polk,  and  turn  him  out  of  office. 
These  northern  barbarians  cannot  carry  on  this  war  very  long 
at  this  rate,  and  Mr.  Webster  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  whole 
Mexican  nation,  for  the  noble  stand  he  has  taken  on  the  side 
of  right  and  justice.     Arise,  Mexicans,  and  drive  the  invaders 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR,  231 

from  our  soil  ?  Mexicans  can  derive  comfort  from  the  fact  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  opposed 
to  this  war,  as  their  papers  show,  and  the  base  man  who  is  at  the 
head  of  the  government  will  be  exiled  from  power ."  Here  is  the  true 
cause  why  this  war  has  been  procrastinated.  Now  look  at  some 
of  the  newspapers  doubtless  referred  to  in  this  Mexican  newspa- 
per, (the  Diario.)  The  Haverhill  [Massachusetts]  Journal  says : 
"  To  volunteer  or  vote  a  dollar  to  carry  on  the  war,  is  moral 
treason  against  the  God  of  Heaven  and  rights  of  mankind." 
Come  now  nearer  home,  and  read  from  the  speech  of  Sena- 
tor Corwin,  three  or  four  hundred  of  which  I  found  franked  to 
one  county  in  Tennessee  :  "  You  must  call  your  army  back  ! 
you  must !  unless  you  are  willing  to  be  thought  a  robber — an 
invader  of  your  neighbors — and  if  your  President  asks  me  for 
men  and  money  to  carry  it  on,  he  shall  have  neither."  Read 
now  from  "  the  Roman,"  one  of  Mr.  Corwin's  Ohio  papers  I 
think:  "The  volunteers — these  jackasses  are  going  off  to 
loaf  prowl,  murder  and  steal  in  Mexico,  while  the  orderly  part 
of  the  community,  are  to  take  care  of  their  wives  and  children," 
&c.  So  much  for  Ohio ;  now  look  still  nearer,  to  Kentucky, 
your  next  door  neighbor.  The  Louisville  Journal,  speaking  of 
the  fall  of  the  Mexican  Capital,  says:  "fallen  in  one  of  the 
most  iniquitous  wars  ever  recorded  in  the  dark  and  bloody 
annals  of  mankind."  Yes,  sirs,  here  is  the  true  cause  of  the 
procrastination  of  this  war,  the  publication  of  all  such  things 
as  these  amongst  the  bigoted,  ignorant  and  degraded  people 
of  Mexico — worse  a  thousand  times  worse  than  the  return  of 
Santa  Anna !  But  my  competitor  is  filled  with  utter  horror  and 
amazement,  that  Congress  did  not  sustain  a  call  for  informa- 
tion, as  to  who  was  sent  to  Cuba  by  the  President,  to  inform 
him  that  he  might  return,  &c.  Sirs,  the  President  never  sent 
any  body  there — he  never  wrote  a  line  to  Santa  Anna,  in  all 
his  life,  nor  did  he  ever  receive  one  from  him ;  the  whole  insin- 
uation was  a  vile  slander  on  the  President,  and  an  insult  to 
the  American  people.  The  resolution  was  so  intended  and 
was  voted  down  accordingly.  If  my  competitor  was  ever  to 
become  a  Governor,  would  his  friends  sustain  a  resolution  in 
the  Legislature,  calling  upon  him  to  state  what  sum  or  sums 
of  money,  he  distributed  among  the  delegates  at  Nashville  in 


232  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

order  to  secure  his  nomination,  over  his  competitor  ?  It  would 
be  an  infamous  slander  on  him,  and  an  insult  to  the  people 
of  the  State,  and  they  would  vote  it  down  accordingly.  No> 
in  both  these  cases,  the  only  way  would  be  to  introduce  a  res- 
olution, raising  a  committee,  with  power  to  send  for  persons 
and  papers,  to  investigate  the  charges,  and  if  found  true  to 
bring  forward  an  impeachment  against  the  President,  or  the 
Governor.  I  repeat  that  this  would  be  the  only  regular  and 
proper  mode  of  proceeding  in  either  case. 

My  competitor  next  raises  complaint  against  the  democratic 
party  in  Congress,  for  not  raising  the  pay  of  the  volunteers  in 
this  Mexican  war.  Not  raising  their  pay !  why  every  demo- 
crat from  Tennessee,  when  the  bill  raising  their  pay  was  finally 
on  its  passage,  voted  for  it — every  one,  I  repeat  every  one. 
But  he  answers  that  they  did  not  vote  so  at  the  preceding  ses- 
sion. Well,  I  answer  they  did,  with  only  one  exception.  My 
competitor  has  spread  a  wrong  opinion  on  this  subject,  nearly 
all  over  the  State.  I  now  tell  him  to  look  to  House  Journal  of 
1846,  May  the  11th,  page  793.  There  in  the  very  bill  declaring 
the  war,  a  motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Chapman  of  Alabama,  to 
amend  the  bill  as  follows  :  "  In  the  10th  section  of  the  bill 
strike  out  the  word  $8  and  insert  $10,"  so  that  the  bill  might 
read,  "  privates  of  infantry,  artillery  and  riflemen,  shall  re- 
ceive $10  per  month;  for  this  every  whig  voted  except  one, 
and  every  democrat  also  except  one,  and  both  these  could 
doubtless  give  satisfactory  explanations  of  their  votes  not  im- 
plying opposition  to  increased  pay  at  all,  so  that  both  parties 
ought  to  be  fairly  put  down  as  equally  in  favor  of  raising  the 
monthly  pay  of  these  gallant  men. 

But  the  volunteers  were  not  allowed  to  elect  their  Brigadier 
and  Major  Generals.  Well,  who  is  to  blame  for  that  ?  Not 
the  President  surely  !  He  appointed  them  precisely  because 
the  law  commanded  him  to  do  it.  But  who  passed  the  law  ? 
Congress  of  course.  My  competitor  must  therefore  hurl  his 
thunder  against  that  body — against  his  own  party  friends  there, 
too,  as  well  as  the  democrats.  Did  his  friends  want  to  en- 
large the  rights  of  volunteers,  by  giving  them  the  privilege  of 
electing  Brigadier  and  Major  Generals  ? — no  such  thing — let 
me  read  to  you  from  the  journals  of  1846,  page  1008,  June  26: 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  233 

Mr.  Cocke  moved  to  amend  bill  (211)  by  striking  out  all  of  the 
same  that  related  to  Brigadier  Generals,  and  inserting  the 
following :  "  and  when  the  number  of  volunteer  regiments 
from  any  one  State  offered  and  accepted,  under  the  said  act  of 
13th  May,  1846,  shall  be  sufficient  to  compose  a  brigade, 
a  Brigadier,  General  for  the  command  of  the  same  shall 
be  appointed  (not  elected)  by  the  authority  of  the  State 
to  which  they  belong,  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the 
laws  of  said  State."  Sirs,  you  see  this  amendment  did  not 
apply  to  Major  Generals  at  all;  they  were  left  by  the 
admission  of  all  parties  in  Congress,  to  be  appointed  by 
the  President.  It  was  confined  to  Brigadier  Generals, 
and  these  were  to  be  appointed,  not  elected,  taken  awray 
from  the  President,  who  is  responsible  for  this  war,  and 
transferred,  not  to  the  volunteers,  oh  no  not  to  them,  but  the 
Governors  of  States,  of  North  Carolina,  of  Kentucky  and 
others.  In  Tennessee,  we  had  no  law  to  cover  such  an  amend- 
ment, and  to  have  had  the  benefit  of  it,  we  must  have  had 
a  called  session  of  the  Legislature.  Besides  this,  look  to  the 
date  of  the  amendment,  the  2Qth  June,  1846.  Where  were 
our  volunteers  then  ?  One  regiment  was  almost  on  the 
theatre  of  their  gallantry  and  glory,  a  second  one  was  on 
its  way,  whilst  the  third  one,  (cavalry)  were  wending  their 
way  through  the  State  of  Arkansas.  When  and  where  did 
they  meet,  when  they  could  have  elected  their  Brigadier 
General  ?  Never,  if  at  all,  until  the  period  of  their  service 
was  almost  expired. 

He  next  objects  to  the  appointments  made  by  the  President — 
that  they  were  made  from  the  shades  of  private  life — that  they 
were  mere  partisans  who  had  never  heard  a  hostile  cannon 
roar.  No  special  complaints  have  been  made — no  individual 
cases  are  mentioned  of  partisan  or  incompetent  appointments. 
I  must  therefore  meet  the  charge  in  its  general  aspect ;  and  here 
I  call  for  the  oldest  and  most  learned  man  of  this  assembly : 
Come  forward,  you  who  have  read  the  history  of  all  the  wars 
of  ancient  and  modern  times,  and  tells  us  whether  you  ever 
heard  or  read  of  any  war,  where  every  legion  and  every  officer 
had  so  completely  filled  up  the  just  and  high  expectations  of 
their  country !    Every  man  seems  to  have  proved  himself  a 


234  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

soldier,  and  every  officer  seems  to  have  emulated  the  fame  of 
those  illustrious  captains  who  have  gone  before  him.  Honor, 
then,  to  all  for  deeds  of  courage,  activity  and  skill,  that  would 
have  emblazoned  the  names  of  a  Jackson,  a  Carroll,  or  a  Cof- 
fee, in  the  palmiest  days  of  their  glory. 

And  now  (said  Gov.  Brown,)  in  the  last  few  moments  of 
my  time,  I  have  a  few  words  to  say,  in  conclusion,  to  those 
gallant  men  who  have  returned  from  the  wars,  and  taken  their 
places  again  in  society.  Look  well  to  what  is  now  going  on  in 
the  State,  and  elsewhere  in  this  Union ;  look  well  to  the  efforts 
now  making  to  bring  this  war  into  disrepute.  The  moment 
that  is  done,  away  go  all  the  fame  and  the  honors  you  have 
won  in  this  arduous  service.  Let  but  this  war  become  doubt- 
ful, as  to  its  justice,  its  necessity  and  its  constitutionality,  and 
all  the  proud  honors  of  Monterey,  Buena  Vista  and  Cerro 
Gordo,  wither  and  perish  in  a  moment — the  war  plume  of 
the  soldier  trails  in  the  dust,  and  you  who  are  so  justly  the 
pride,  boast  and  ornaments  of  our  country,  sink  down  neglect- 
ed, if  not  scorned,  for  those  noble  achievements  that  so  justly 
entitle  you  to  a  nation's  thanks — a  nation's  gratitude. 


SPEECH. 

Extracts  from  the  Speech  of  Gov.  Aaron  V.  Brown,  one  of  the 
Democratic  Electors  for  the  State  at  large,  at  Jonesbord',  East 
Tennessee,  August,  21,  1848. 


I  rise,  said  Gov.  Brown,  to  address  you  as  one  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic Electors  of  President  and  Vice  President  for  the  State 
at  large.  If  I  had  consulted  my  personal  ease,  or  had  fondly 
lingered  over  the  endearments  of  home,  had  I  looked  only  to 
the  many  years  of  my  life  already  devoted  to  the  public  service, 
or  to  the  number  of  times  I  have  already  traversed  the  State, 
crossing  her  rivers  and  scaling  her  mountains,  I  might  well 
have  declined  a  positions,  so  full  of  labor  and  responsibility 
But,  fellow-citizens,  (said  Gov.  B.)  I  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
decline  it.  Identified  with  you  in  so  many  former  struggles, 
your  leader  and  standard  bearer  in  some  of  them,  I  did  not 
feel  willing  to  retire  whilst  the  enemy  was  yet  in  the  field, 
flushed  with  a  recent  victory,  which  chance  and  slander,  not 
valor,  have  achieved  for  him.  Sirs,  I  ought  not  to  have  de- 
clined it,  because  I  came  freely  amongst  you  in  1844,  and  I  may 
say,  had  no  small  agency  in  persuading  you  to  bring  this  ad- 
ministration into  power.  I  exhorted  you  to  commit  your  po- 
litical destinies  to  its  guidance,  and  assured  you  that  in  my 
opinion  it  would  lead  you  in  the  way  of  prosperity  and  of  honor- 
Now  that  it  is  drawing  so  nearly  to  its  termination,  it  was  pe- 
culiarly proper  that  I  should  come  back  among  you,  that  you 
might  look  me  in  the  face  and  justly  upbraid  me,  for  any  dis- 
asters which  it  may  have  brought  upon  you.  You  were  then 
confidently  told  that  James  K.  Polk,  the  democratic  nominee, 
was  incompetent  to  fill  so  exalted  a  station.     That  in  peace  or 


236  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

in  war,  he  would  be  alike  unable  to  sustain  the  credit,  the  honor 
and  the  glory  of  the  republic.  The  most  insulting  and  invidi- 
ous comparisons  were  instituted  between  him  and  his  competitor. 
In  ornothology,  the  one  was  the  stupid  moping  bird  of  night, 
whilst  the  other  was  the  majestic  Eagle,  soaring  aloft  among 
the  clouds.  Among  quadrupeds,  one  was  the  great  American 
Eclipse,  whilst  the  other  was  the  little  Shetland  poney  of  the 
circus.  Among  mortals,  the  one  was  so  nearly  allied  to  Divin- 
ity, that  if  he  should  chance  to  fall  into  a  mesmeric  slumber, 
you  might  extract  virtue  enough  from  him  to  make  half  a  dozen 
such  men  as  James  K.  Polk ! !  Well,  time,  the  great  expoun- 
der of  human  events,  has  rolled  onward  and  I  stand  to-day 
present  before  you,  to  point  you  to  the  proudest  refutation  of 
all  these  insulting  predictions. 

Look  first  in  the  order  of  time,  as  I  know  it  is  first  in  your 
affections,  to  the  state  and  condition  of  your  Federal  Union. 
Instead  of  finding,  as  you  were  told  you  would  do,  its  broken 
and  shattered  fragments  everywhere  strewed  around  you,  you 
behold  its  bright  and  golden  arch  with  more  than  adamantine 
strength,  still  bespanning  the  continent.  Its  western  terminus 
that  used  to  illuminate  only  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, now  pours  its  rich  effulgence  on  all  the  rivers,  and  bays 
and  harbors  of  the  Pacific.  Look  again  on  this  bright  and 
beautiful  picture,  less  bright  and  beautiful  'by  far  than  its  glo- 
rious realization.  In  the  last  four  years,  four  new  States  have 
been  added  to  the  confederacy.  Florida  and  Texas,  two 
".bright  particular  stars"  shining  in  the  South,  whilst  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin,  twin  sisters  of  the  Lakes,  in  sylvan  loveliness  lie 
reposing  in  the  North.  A  new  constellation,  for  every  year  of 
this  administration,  to  shine  upon  it  and  to  adorn  it.  That 
the  act  of  Congress  admitting  Florida  and  the  resolution  of 
annexation  of  Texas,  did  a  little  antecede  the  advent  of  this 
administration,  can  make  no  difference,  because  they  were 
but  the  ripening  fruits  of  that  democratic  policy,  which  through- 
out its  career,  has  so  much  distinguished  it. 

Look  now  to  his  alleged  incompetency  to  manage  the  civil 
affairs  of  the  nation.  History — impartial  history — with  its 
iron  pen,  has  recorded  a  succession  of  able  messages  to  Con- 
gress, which  will  compare  favorably  with  those  of  his  most 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTI05.  23? 

distinguished  predecessors.  It  has  recorded,  too,  a  brilliant 
series  of  contested  measures,  which  can  find  no  parallel  in 
any  equal  period  of  the  republic.  So  successfully  have  these 
measures  gone  into  operation,  that  they  have  extorted  from  the 
whig  party  the  reluctant  admission,  that  they  cannot  and  dare 
not  run  a  Presidential  candidate,  who  will  publicly  avow  his 
opposition  to  one  of  them.  In  the  Deloney  letter,  the  question 
is  expressly  asked,  "  Gen.  Taylor,  are  you  in  favor  of  a  United 
States  Bank?"  No,  says  the  General,  I  am  not  prepared 
to  say  that  I  am.  In  the  same  letter,  "  General  Taylor,  are 
you  opposed  to  the  democratic  revenue  tariff  of  1846?"  No, 
says  the  General,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  I  am.  Again, 
"  Gen.  Taylor,  are  you  opposed  to  the  independent  or  sub- 
treasury,  which  the  democrats  have  lately  established  and 
against  which  the  whigs  have  warred  with  such  undying  oppo- 
sition ?"  No,  says  Gen.  Taylor,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that 
I  am  opposed  to  that  either.  These  are  substantially  the 
questions  and  answers  of  that  celebrated  letter,  and  as  long  as 
they  shall  live,  they  will  constitute  the  loftiest  eulogium  on 
the  civil  measures  of  James  K.  Polk's  administration. 

I  come  now  to  his  alleged  incompetency  in  the  event  of  a 
foreign  war.  You  will  remember  how  it  was  more  than  inti- 
mated, that  in  that  event,  he  would  not  have  the  nerve  to  stand 
up  to  such  a  crisis.  Well,  the  war  did  come.  I  speak  not 
yet  of  why  and  how  it  came.  But  it  did  come,  and  what  was 
said  then  ?  Why,  the  counter  cry  was  instantly  raised  that  he 
had  too  much  nerve!  so  much  that  he  even  provoked  the  war — 
that  he  even  run  out  to  meet  it,  by  ordering  the  march  of  the 
army  to  the  Rio  Grande.  When  afterwards  in  the  further  pro- 
gress of  the  war,  your  triumphant  Eagles  had  perched  on  all 
the  domes  of  her  capitol,  what  was  said  then?  Why,  this 
democratic  President  of  ours  is  altogether  too  bloody  minded. 
He  is  a  very  Tamerlane  or  Ghensikhan  and  don't  want  to  make 
a  treaty,  until  he  can  swallow  up  the  whole  national  sover- 
eignty of  Mexico  !  And  yet  this  bloody  accusation  had  scarcely 
fallen  from  the  lips  of  the  Senator  who  pronounced  it,  before 
the  President  sent  in  a  treaty  eminently  distinguished  for  its 
liberality  and  its  forbearance. 

With  the  ratification  of  that  treaty,  the  bright  and  beautiful 


238  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

goddess  of  peace  again  returns   to  our  country.     She  comes, 

"Like  a  beautiful  cloud  to  its  Haven  of  rest, 

On  the  white  wings  of  peace  floating  up  from  the  West." 

She  comes  bearing  in  her  hands  all  that  was  ever  demanded ; 
"  indemnity  for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future."  She  pro- 
claims too,  to  the  everlasting  honor  of  this  administration  and 
of  the  Christian  age  in  which  we  live,  that  in  all  this  war,  not  a 
gun  has  been  fired,  not  a  city  has  been  taken,  not  a  province 
has  been  invaded,  without  her  having  first  tendered  to  our 
deluded  enemy  the  Olive  Branch  of  Peace. 

With  her  also  has  returned  that  gallant  army,  that  has  borne 
your  standard  so  high  and  so  proudly  on  every  battle  field  of 
Mexico.  They  come — having  never  lost  a  battle,  never  sus- 
tained a  defeat.  They  come,  having  covered  themselves,  their 
kindred,  their  country,  and  this  administration,  with  undying 
honors.  They  come,  having  filled  America  with  joy  and  the 
world  with  admiration.  The  world  !  All  the  civilized  nations 
of  it,  gazing  on  the  wonderful  prowess  of  our  arms  and  the 
sublime  operations  of  our  republican  system  under  this  and 
preceding  democratic  administrations,  are  even  now  kindling 
up  the  beacon  fires  of  liberty,  to  light  their  way  "  to  the  model 
republic  of  America."  France,  springing  up  like  a  young  giant, 
is  already  in  the  path,  whilst  the  other  nations  of  the  continent 
are  preparing  to  follow.  England,  too,  hoary  and  veteran  as 
she  is  in  the  ways  of  oppression,  begins  to  feel  the  mighty  im- 
pulse ;  whilst  Ireland — down-trodden  and  oppressed  Ireland — 
slowly  lifts  herself  up  and  looks  mournfully  around  her  for  re- 
lief. But  alas !  I  fear  there  is  no  relief  for  Ireland !  I  fear 
that  her  own  immortal  poet  has  too  well  described  her  con- 
dition : 

"  Alas,  for  his  country  !  her  pride  has  gone  by, 

And  that  spirit  is  broken  that  never  would  bend ; 
O'er  her  ruin  in  secret  her  children  must  sigh, 

For  'tis  treason  to  love  her,  and  death  to  defend. 
,  Unpriz'd  are  her  sons,  till  they  have  learned  to  betray, 

Undistinguished  they  live,  if  they  shame  not  their  sires  ; 
And  the  torch  that  would  light  them  through  liberty's  way, 

Must  be  caught  from  the  pile  where  their  country  expires." 

I  know,  gentlemen,  that  you  will  excuse  this  rapid  review  of 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  239 

the  past  four  years,  as  indispensable  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  four  which  are  to  follow.  It  exhibits  the  glorious  triumphs 
of  democratic  principles  and  measures,  and  brings  us  directly 
to  the  question,  whether  there  should  be  any  change  or  aban- 
donment of  them  in  the  pending  presidential  election.  Oppo- 
sition to  these  principles  and  measures  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  present  whig  party.  That  opposition  has  been  for  sixteen 
years  bold,  fierce  and  unrelenting.  Its  author,  and  I  may  now 
say  its  finisher,  has  been  ever  in  the  field,  urging  his  followers 
to  victory  or  death.  But  in  every  election  they  have  had  some 
well  known  and  well  understood  platform  on  which  to  stand. 
But  how  stands  the  case  in  the  present  election?  Has  either 
of  the  great  political  parties  of  this  country,  so  far  forgotton 
what  was  due  to  its  own  honor  or  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  as  to  conceal  their  opinions  and  utterly  refuse  to  dis- 
close them  ?  Let  impartial  and  undeniable  facts  answer  the 
terrible  question.  Go  with  me  first  to  the  records  of  the  con- 
vention of  the  democratic  party  at  Baltimore.  Read  over  the 
long  series  of  resolutions,  fully  covering  every  great  doctrine, 
and  principle,  and  measure  of  our  party.  Turn  next  to  the 
letters  of  acceptance  of  our  nominees,  Gens.  Cass  and  Butler, 
and  see  how  fully  and  completely  our  creed  is  endorsed.  Every 
democratic  heart  must  swell  with  a  just  pride,  that  all  is  so 
plain,  and  public,  and  patriotic. 

Now  turn  to  the  records  of  the  Philadelphia  whig  convention. 
Read  over  its  pages — every  line  of  them — and  you  will  not  find 
one  word  about  principles,  or  doctrines,  or  measures — not 
a  word  against  any  of  the  democratic  measures ;  not  a 
word  for  or  against  a  bank,  for  a  protective  tariff,  for  distribu- 
tion, against  the  sub-treasury,  against  the  war,  against  the  ac- 
quisition of  territory  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war — nothing 
for  or  against  that  firebrand  of  hell,  the  Wilmot  Proviso  !  It 
was  no  accidental  omission  in  that  convention,  for  more  than 
one  proposition  was  made  to  make  known,  in  some  way  or 
other,  the  principles  of  their  party  as  involved  in  this  election, 
but  they  were  ruled  to  be  either  out  of  order,  or  lost  in  the  scuffle 
and  clamor  for  availability.  Nor  was  it  left  to  the  response  of 
General  Taylor,  their  nominee,  to  elucidate  their  party  senti- 


240  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

ments  on  all  these  subjects ;  for  when  you  read  over  his  letter  of 
acceptance,  you  are  forced  to  exclaim, 

"  Silence,  how  dead  !  and  darkness,  how  profound  !" 

Remember,  gentlemen,  we  are  searching  for  the  principles 
of  the  whig  party,  involved  in  this  election.  We  have  searched 
for  them  in  the  high  places  of  the  party,  but  have  searched  in 
vain.  Let  no  man  point  us  now,  as  formerly,  to  the  votes  and 
speeches  of  Mr.  Clay  as  the  true  exponents  of  whig  principles. 
Time  was  when  he  was  the  living  and  true  oracle.  Time  was 
when  he  was  regarded  and  called  the  very  embodiment  of  whig- 
gery  itself.  But,  alas  !  that  "  embodiment"  is  now  dead,  politi- 
cally dead — slain,  not  by  his  enemies,  but  murdered  outright 
by  those  whom  he  had  nourished  into  life  and  protected  be- 
neath the  shadow  of  his  own  great  name.  Like  Caesar,  he  was 
slain  in  the  capitol,  by  his  own  friends.  He  expired,  too,  like 
him,  not  at  the  foot  of  Pompey's  statue,  but  at  the  base  of  that 
great  monument  of  whig  principles  which  he  himself  had  reared. 
"Who,  of  all  "  the  conspirators,"  dare,  now  in  their  extremity,  to 
go  down  to  the  lone  resting  place  of  the  departed,  to  pluck  up 
from  his  tomb  the  principles  and  doctrines  with  which  to  em- 
blazon the  blank  and  naked  standard  which  they  have  committed 
to  the  hands  of  General  Taylor  ?  Fancy  to  yourself  some  en- 
vious Casca,  or  some  well  beloved  Brutus,  if  you  please,  start- 
ing on  such  a  pilgrimage.  He  arrives — th^  hour  is  midnight. 
Standing  beneath  the  gloomy  arches  of  the  sepulchre,  he  calls 
aloud  on  "  the  Sage  of  Ashland !"  The  very  grave  would  burst 
open  on  such  a  call,  and  a  form  like  that  of  Samuel  of  old, 
slowly  rising  to  his  view,  would  cry,  "  Aback  !  aback !  I  hear 
the  voice  of  one  who  murdered  the  whig  party  when  they  mur- 
dered me." 

Sir,  said  Gov.  B.,  (turning  slowly  to  Gov.  Jones,)  say  not  that 
it  is  a  strange  spectacle  to  see  me  shedding  tears  over  the 
grave  of  Henry  Clay — I,  who  twenty  years  ago,  introduced 
resolutions  into  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee,  condemning  his 
imputed  bargain,  intrigue  and  corruption  in  the  election  of  Mr. 
Adams.  No,  sir,  I  was  his  public  enemy — struck  at  him  as  such, 
in  open  day.  He  expected  it  from  all  good  Jackson  men,  and 
struck  back  giant  blows  in  return.      But  I  never  struck  at 


ON  THE   PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,        •  241 

him  as  a  false  friend  in  disguise ;  Judas  like,  I  never  "  betrayed 
him  with  a  kiss" — I  never  opened  to  him  the  arms  of  pretended 
friendship,  whilst  I  drove  the  keen  stiletto  to  his  heart !  No, 
sir,  I  shed  no  tears  over  the  grave  of  this  fallen  Caesar.  I  only- 
point  his  old  and  sincere  friends  to 

"  the  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off." 

The  old  principles  of  the  party  having  expired  with  Mr.  Clay, 
and  his  party  having  in  fact  killed  him  off  on  account  of  his 
principles,  it  remains  only  to  be  seen  what  new  ones  have 
been  substituted  in  their  place  and  stand  involved  in  the  pres- 
ent election.  Before  I  proceed  with  this  distinct  proposition,  I 
mean  to  call  my  competitor  to  the  stand,  to  prove  by  him  that 
the  nomination  of  General  Taylor  was  a  total  and  final  aban- 
donment of  all  the  old  principles  of  the  whig  party.  He  has 
denied  it  to-day,  and  on  former  days,  and  I  will  now  prove  it  upon 
him  by  the  words  which  have  fallen  from  his  own  lips.  On 
the  8th  of  April  last,  standing  at  the  head  and  in  the  presence 
of  his  party,  he  warned  his  friends  "  of  the  fearful  precipice  on 
which  they  rushed,"  in  the  nomination  of  General  Taylor  :  aAn 
abyss,"  said  he,  "  which  if  not  avoided  I  fear  is  destined  to 
swallow  up  our  brightest  hopes  and  most  cherished  principles." 
Well,  Governor,  they  would  not  avoid  Taylor^s  nomination,  and 
so,  sure  enough,  away  went  "your  most  cherished  principles." 
Again  :  now  turn  to  the  13th  page  of  that  speech,  where  you 
ask,  after  enumerating  your  principles,"  how  stands  General 
Taylor  on  these  important  subjects  ?  Who  can  answer  ?  Who 
shall  speak?  The  deep,  awful  silence  of  the  grave  is  notmore 
profound.  And  yet  we  are  urged  to  select  him  as  the  cham- 
pion of  our  principles,  the  safe  depository  of  our  faith,  the 
great  expounder  of  our  creed."  Gov.  Jones,  you  were  then 
horrified  at  the  very  idea  of  doing  such  a  thing  !  You  proceed, 
"  are  gentlemen  ready  thus  to  abandon  their  principles,  for  I 
can  regard  it  as  nothing  less  than  an  abandonment."  Gov. 
Jones  (said  Gov.  B.)  mark  the  fullness  and  power  of  this  lan- 
guage, "  nothing  less  than  an  abandonment;"  not  of  one,  two 
or  three,  but  of  all  the  cherished  principles  of  your  party.  In 
that  or  some  other  speech,  you  have  declared  that  a  party 
without  principles  is  like  a  body  without  a  soul ;  and  putting 
17 


242  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

together  your  arguments  and  admissions  on  former  occasions, 
you  leave  the  old  Clay  whig  party  truly  "  in  a  lost  and  ruined 
condition."  But,  sir,  said  Gov.  Brown,  no  man  should  be  sur- 
prised at  such  a  result,  who  looks  at  the  astounding  declaration 
on  the  14th  page  of  your  speech.  There  you  proclaim  that, 
although  you  will  not  "  willingly  make  the  surrender  of  your 
principles,"  yet  you  will  obey  the  decision  of  the  great  whig 
convention,  "  choosing  rather  to  do  what  my  judgment  con- 
demns, standing  and  acting  with  my  friends,  rather  than  by 
standing  out,  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy."  Sir,  said 
Gov.  B.,  I  am  amazed  at  such  sentiments,  and  I  enter  my  eter- 
nal protestation  against  them.  "I  will  not,"  says  he,  "  willingly 
make  a  surrender  of  my  principles."  No,  sir,  a  man  must  die 
a  martyr  to  his  principles,  although  he  may  often  yield  up  his 
opinions  and  notions  of  expediency  and  policy  to  the  judgment 
of  his  party  friends  ;  but  if  he  would  be  true  to  God,  to  truth 
and  virtue,  he  must  surrender  his  principles  to  no  power  upon 
earth  !  But  Gov.  Jones  gives  his  reason  for  thi3  sentiment, 
so  shocking  to  all  the  high  elements  of  morality ;  "  choosing 
rather  to  do  that  which  my  judgment  condemns,"  &c.  Now 
what  is  a  man's  judgment  ?  what  his  reason  ?  It  is  that  high 
and  noble  faculty  which  God  has  planted  in  the  mind  of  man 
to  mark  his  superiority  over  the  brute  creation,  and  he  that 
rudely  tears  the  bright  jewel  from  his  brow,  is  no  safe  counsellor 
and  guide  to  this  large  Christian  assembly. 

'tis  a  base 

Abandonment  of  reason  to  resign 
Our  right  of  thought. 

But  I  mean  to  fortify  my  position,  that  the  old  whig  principles 
are  abandoned,  and  are  not  involved  in  this  election,  by  a  wit- 
ness greater  than  Gov.  Jones  himself.  Gen.  Taylor  declares, 
in  his  answer  to  the  Deloney  letter,  in  relation  to  a  bank  and 
the  tariff,  that  he  was  not  prepared  to  give  his  opinions,  and 
could  only  do  so  after  duly  investigating  them,  which  he  de- 
clared he  had  not  the  time  then  to  do,  all  his  time  being  taken 
up  in  his  official  duties.  Now  how  can  questions  be  at  issue, 
on  which  a  candidate  has  not  yet  formed  his  opinion  ?  Again  : 
on  the  15th  February  1848,  Gen.  Taylor  writes  a  letter  to  a 
gentleman  at  Cincinnati  as  follows :    "  I  have  to  inform  you 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  343 

that  I  have  laid  it  down  as  a  principle  not  to  give  my  opinions 
upon  or  prejudge  in  any  way  the  various  questions  of  policy 
now  at  issue  between  the  political  parties  of  the  conntry, 
nor  to  promise  what  I  would  or  would  not  do,  were  I  elected  to 
the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  and  that  in  the  cases  pre- 
sented in  your  letter,  I  see  no  necessity  for  departing  from 
that  principle." 

Now,  I  put  it  to  all  honorable  men,  to  all  right  thinking  men, 
whether  a  silent,  undisclosive  candidate  like  this  puts  any  thing 
whatsoever  in  issue — new  or  old,  good  or  bad,  right  or  wrong. 
His  only  principle  is  to  declare  no  principle.  Sir,  it  was  this 
letter,  and  others  like  it,  that  made  you  declare  in  your  Nash- 
ville speech  that  no  man  can  command  the  confidence  and  suf- 
frage of  the  whig  party  who  refuses  to  speak  out  plainly,  fully 
a*nd  freely.  Here  we  see  that  Gen.  Taylor  refuses  to  speak 
out  at  all — on  any  subject — to  any  body.  It  was  this  letter,  and 
others  like  it — it  was  your  speech  at  Nashville,  condemning 
his  dogged  and  obstinate  concealment  of  his  principles,  that 
turned  hundreds  of  your  party  and  of  my  party  away  from 
him,  and  keep  them  from  him  to  this  hour,  in  despite  of  all 
your  back-sliding  and  tame  surrender  of  your  reason  and  your 
judgment  to  the  commands  of  party.  Sir,  said  Gov.  B.  to 
Gov.  Jones,  you  sometimes  charge  me  with  having  been  once 
in  favor  of  Gen.  Taylor.  I  was  never  for  him  but  on  the  ex- 
press condition  that  he  should  make  a  full  and  frank  exposition 
of  his  principles,  and  that  these,  when  made,  should  be  found 
satisfactory  to  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people — then, 
and  not  till  then,  was  I  willing  to  support  him  on  national 
grounds;  but  never — never,  as  a  mere  party  candidate,  to  be 
swallowed  down,  as  he  subsequently  was,  by  a  fraudulent  de- 
vice, and  then  vomited  up  amidst  the  party  orgies  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia convention.  Sir,  these  things  released  me,  and  re- 
leased all  other  democrats,  from  all  and  every  real  or  supposed 
obligation  to  vote  for  Gen.  Taylor.  If  any  further  reason 
were  wanting  to  justify  our  surrendering  all  ideas  of  his  sup- 
port, let  it  be  found  in  the  bold  and  insulting  declaration  of  my 
competitor  in  his  speech  at  Philadelphia,  that  "  he  cared  not 
whether  Zachary  Taylor  was  a  whig  or  not — or  what  he  was  ; 
provided  he  was  against  locofocoism,  he  was  with  him."    Let 


244  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

him  be  native  American — anti-mason — abolitionist — saint  or 
devil — any  thing  or  nothing,  so  he  is  opposed  to  the  democra- 
cy ! !  To  that  democracy  which,  in  another  part  of  the  same 
speech,  notwithstanding  all  his  gentle  cooing  to  them  noic,  he 
denominates  "  that  lying,  double-dealing,  spurious  democracy, 
modern  locofocoism,  [which  he  declared]  he  utterly  abhorred 
and  repudiated."  What  democrat  in  all  this  broad  land  could 
sit  down  to  a  Taylor  entertainment  with  an  insulting  invita- 
tion like  this  ? 

But  Gov.  Jones  endeavors  to  escape  from  all  these  uncom- 
fortable dilemmas,  by  saying  that,  since  the  8th  of  April  last, 
General  Taylor  has  come  out  with  a  satisfactory  declaration  of 
whig  principles,  and  therefore  it  is  that  he  now  supports  him. 
That  if  he  had  not,  he  would  not  advocate  his  election.  I  thank 
the  gentleman,  said  Gov.  B.,  for  the  admission,  and  will  hold 
him  to  it  with  an  iron  grasp.  I  will  enumerate  the  whig  prin- 
ciples, known  and  admitted  to  be  such,  and  then  demand  to 
know  of  Gov.  Jones  which  one  of  them  has  Gen.  Taylor  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  upon  since  the  8th  of  April  to  this  very 
hour.  Note  them,  Gov.  Jones,  and  tell  me  one.  1st,  the  bank 
— 2d,  the  tariff — 3d,  internal  improvements.  Has  he  expressed 
his  opinions  for  or  against  any  one  of  these?  No,  not  one. 
In  his  Allison  letter  he  speaks  of  how  he  would  apply  the 
veto  power  to  them,  but  his  opinions  on  them,  for  or  against,  he 
does  not  pretend  to  intimate — not  at  all,  not  at  all.  4th,  op- 
position to  the  war  as  unjust  and  unconstitutional.  This  is  an- 
other whig  doctrine.  Does  Gen.  Taylor  give  his  opinions  on 
this  point  in  his  Allison  or  any  other  letter  up  to  this  day  ? 
No,  he  does  not.  He  speaks  of  the  evils  of  war  generally, 
and  deprecates  the  subjugation  of  other  nations  by  "  conquest," 
but  gives  no  opinion  as  to  the  Mexican  war  in  particular.  5th, 
unwillingness  to  take  from  Mexico  territorial  indemnity  against 
the  expenses  of  the  war,  is  another  whig  doctrine  on  which 
Gen.  Taylor  is  profoundly  silent  in  the  Allison  letter.  Remem- 
ber, sir,  I  am  now  through  the  enumeration  of  whig  principles 
and  measures,  and  I  yet  hold  you  in  an  iron  grasp,  and  demand 
to  know  on  what  one  has  Gen  Taylor  developed  his  opinions 
since  your  Nashville  speech.  You  tell  me  that  he  has  come 
out  at  least  for  the  whig  doctrine  of  the  veto.    No  such  thing, 


ON  TIIE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  245 

sir — to  use  your  own  favorite  mode  of  expression,  "  not  a  bit 
of  it."  Look  to  the  whig  speeches  in  Congress  after  Tyler's 
vetoes — look  to  your  own  speech  at  Nashville,  where  the  whig 
doctrine  is,  a  total  abolition  of  the  veto  power.  Listen  to  your 
own  words  :  "  Who  does  not  remember  the  lofty  denunciations 
against  not  only  the  improper  exercise  of  this  power,  but 
against  its  very  existence?  Have  we  not  pointed  out  the  hor- 
rors of  this  one  man  power  ?  this  spirit  of  monarchy  ?  and 
have  we  not  solemnly  pledged  ourselves  to  the  country — have 
we  not  invoked  the  genius  of  liberty  to  attest  our  sincerity, 
that,  when  in  power,  we  would  use  the  proper  means  to  rid  the 
constitution  of  this  incubus  and  strike  from  the  hands  of  the 
people  this  last  fetter?"  Now,  hear  what  Gen.  Taylor  says 
about  this  "  abolition  and  annihilation"  of  the  veto  power. 
In  his  Allison  letter  :  "  The  veto  power.  The  power  given  by 
the  constitution  to  the  Executive  to  interpose  his  veto  is  a  high 
conservative  power,"  &c.  There,  now,  you  see  that  so  far 
from  coming  out  for  your  whig  anti-veto  power,  he  knocks  it 
right  on  the  head,  and  leaves  you  with  the  poor  excuse  of  hav- 
ing gone  for  Taylor  only  because  he  went  against  you  and  one 
of  your  favorite  doctrines.  So  I  hold  you  in  that  iron  grasp 
yet.  You  seek  to  escape  by  saying  that  he  lays  down  a  good 
whig  rule  for  the  exercise  of  the  veto  power  under  the  consti- 
tution. And  is  this  all — all  the  platform  on  which  you  and 
your  party,  and  your  candidate,  have  to  stand  in  this  great 
election  ?  With  no  one  opinion  expressed,  on  any  one  subject 
in  the  world,  except  the  application  of  the  veto  power  in  almost 
the  very  words  of  nearly  every  President  that  ever  went  before 
him.  What  are  they  ?  "  But  in  my  opinion,  should  never  be 
exercised  except  in  cases  of  clear  violation  of  the  constitution 
or  manifest  haste  and  want  of  consideration  of  Congress." 

Sir,  if  the  constitution  be  violated  by  an  act  of  Congress, 
who  would  thank  Gen.  Taylor  to  veto  it  ?  He  takes  an  oath 
to  support  the  constitution,  and  if  Congress  send  him  a  bill 
which  he  cannot  sign  consistently  with  that  instrument,  the 
scorn  of  the  world  and  the  hottest  fires  of  perdition  await  him 
if  he  dare  to  put  his  signature  to  it.  So  there  is  no  platform  in 
that.  But  he  adds  the  other  clause  you  say,  that  he  will  not 
veto  it  unless  it  be  in  cases  of  "  manifest  haste  and  want  of 


246  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

consideration  of  Congress."     Who  would?     Why,  every  Pres- 
ident who  ever  vetoed  a  law  not  on  constitutional  grounds,  put 
it  on  the  footing  expressly  that  Congress  had  not  duly  considered 
the  subject.     No  President  ever  presumed  a  wilful  and  deliber- 
ate purpose  in  Congress  to  do  wrong,  and  none  ever  will.     As 
it  relates  to  the  balance  of  the  Allison  letter,  where  Gen.  Tay- 
lor declares  that  "  on  the  subject  of  the  currency,  the  tariff,  and 
internal  improvements  by  Congress,  the  will  of  the  people  as 
expressed  by  Congress,  ought  to  be  respected  and  carried  out 
by  the  Executive."  If  the  previous  rule  in  relation  to  the  appli- 
cation of  the  veto  power  is  to  be  applied  to  this,  it  means  noth- 
ing— absolutely  nothing.    But  if  it  is  not,  then  it  means  what 
Gen.  Taylor  can   never  stand  up  to-r-what  his  oath  and  the 
constitution  would  never  allow  him  to  stand  up  to.     But  I  need 
not  argue  this,  because  Gov.  Jones  every  day  admits  that  on 
the  currency,  the  tariff",  and  internal  improvements,  if  Congress 
violated  the  constitution,  or  legislated  "  without  due  consider- 
ation," Gen.  Taylor  would  have  to  veto  on  these  as  on  all  other 
subjects.     This  admission  sweeps  away  the  whole  Allison  let- 
ter, and  the  fancied  platform  which  it  reared  tumbles  to  the 
ground,  and  /  hold  you  yet,  sir,  in  the  iron  grasp  of  your  admis- 
sion, not  to  support  Gen.  Taylor  if  he  has  not  come  out  fully 
and  freely  with  his  principles.     But,  sir,  I  feel  that  it  is  useless 
to  press  you  further  on  this  admission,  for  I  am  satisfied  in  my 
mind  that  it  is  no  disclosures  of  Gen.  Taylor  that  have  worked 
out  your  conversion  to  him — but  that  surrender  of  reason,  that 
throwing  away  of  your  better  judgment,  that  unwilling  abandon- 
ment of  principles  at  the  high  commands  of  yonr  party,  which 
you  avow  in  your  Nashville  speech. 

But  before  I  leave  this  Allison  letter,  allow  me  to  ask  why 
this  fresh  and  furious  onslaught  on  the  veto  power  of  the  Consti- 
tution? It  has  been  there  ever  since  the  republic  was  founded. 
It  was  put  there  unanimously  by  the  convention  who  framed 
the  Constitution — by  Washington,  and  Madison,  and  Franklin, 
and  a  long  list  of  the  best  men  that  God  in  his  mercy  ever  sent 
to  this  earth — under  it  the  republic  has  grown  from  thirteen  to 
thirty  States,  and  from  three  or  four  to  more  than  twenty  millions 
of  inhabitants.  In  commerce  and  navigation  ;  in  agriculture 
and  the  mechanical  arts  and  sciences ;  in  all  the   elements  of 


ON  THE    PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  247 

national  greatness,  both  in  peace  and  in  war,  she  stands  the 
wonder  of  the  age  and  of  the  world.  Is  it  possible,  that  this 
canker  worm  has  been  working  at  the  bud  and  eating  out  the 
vital  principles  of  our  government,  unfelt  and  unperceived  du- 
ring all  this  while?  Well,  look  to  its  mighty  ravages.  Out 
of  more  than  seven  thousand  laws,  twenty-five  only  have  been 
vetoed — one  out  of  about  two  hundred  and  eighty  ;  twice  by 
George  Washington  ;  six  times  by  Mr.  Madison ;  once  by  Mr. 
Monroe  ;  eight  or  nine  times  in  the  eight  years  of  Gen.  Jack- 
son ;  four  times  by  Mr.  Tyler,  and  three  times  by  James  K. 
Polk.  That  is  to  say,  in  twenty-five  out  of  seven  thousand 
laws,  the  different  Presidents  of  the  United  States  have  called 
on  Congress  to  re-consider  laws  which  they  had  passed  and 
sent  to  him  for  approval — twenty-five  times  out  of  seven  thou 
sand  !  If  any  of  these  laws  were,  on  re-consideration,  thought 
to  be  decidedly  good  ones,  Congress  could  have  passed  them 
over  the  head  of  the  President  and  in  spite  of  his  veto,  and  no 
mischief  could  have  come  to  the  Republic. 

My  competitor  claims  Alexander  Hamilton  as  the  author  of 
the  veto  as  it  stands  in  the  Constitution.  He  must  have  read 
the  history  of  the  convention  to  a  poor  purpose  to  have  come 
to  that  conclusion.  Hamilton  proposed  and  advocated  an 
absolute  veto.  Mr.  Madison  or  Mr.  Edmund  Randolph  proposed 
a  qualified  or  limited  one  and  it  was  adopted,  Hamilton's 
having  been  rejected  by  the  convention.  And  at  what  moment 
is  it  proposed  to  obliterate  this  veto  power,  or  to  render  it 
nugatory  and  vain  by  non-user  and  neglect  ?  In  former  years 
the  power  of  numbers  was  with  the  South,  and  she  rested  in 
assurance  and  confidence  beneath  the  shadow  of  that  power, 
but  now  "  the  sceptre  has  departed  from  Judah,"  and  an  in- 
exorable majority  of  more  than  forty  votes  is  daily  cast  against 
you  from  the  North — from  the  North,  where  the  fires  of  fanati- 
cism are  now  burning  and  threatening  every  year  to  consume 
you  and  your  institutions  together.  It  is  at  such  a  moment  as 
this  that  you  are  called  upon  to  heave  overboard  your  last  an- 
chor, or  to  throw  away  the  last  shield  of  your  protection  and 
safety. 

But  I  must  pass  away,  said  Gov.  Brown,  for  want  of  time, 
from  a  further  examination  of  this  subject,  in  order  to  answer 


248  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

some  of  the  objections  taken  by  Gov.  Jones  to  the  democratic 
nominee,  Gen.  Cass,  one  of  the  purest  patriots  and  wisest 
statesmen  this  country  has  ever  produced. 

Gov.  Brown  then  reviewed  and  most  triumphantly  answered 
the  charge  that  Gen.  Cass  was  a  federalist  in  1798,  or  at  any 
other  time.  He  showed  by  extracts  from  one  of  Gov.  Jones' 
northern  speeches,  that  he  had  declared,  that  Gen.  Cass  had 
been  a  democrat  all  the  days  of  his  life.  He  denied  that  Gov. 
Jones  had  brought  forward  one  particle  of  proof  to  show  that 
Gen.  Cass  voted  for  or  approved  the  vagrant  law  of  Michigan — 
that  it  had  as  well  be  said  that  the  Speakers  of  the  two  houses 
of  the  Legislature,  or  of  Congress,  voted  for  all  the  bills  they 
signed,  or  that  the  foreman  of  the  grand  jury  must  have  voted 
for  every  bill  of  presentment  or  indictment  which  he  signs  and 
presents  to  the  court.  He  adverted  to  the  charge  that  Gen. 
Cass  had  received  large  sums  of  extra  allowances  for  his  pub- 
lic services,  but  said  that  Gov.  Jones  admitted  that  he  had  not 
received  one  dollar  which  the  laws  of  the  land  did  not  authorize 
to  be  paid  to  him.  This  he  said  settled  that  charge  forever. 
If  the  law  allowed  and  authorized  the  payment  there  was  an 
end  of  the  matter.  He  showed  that  the  statements  of  Mr. 
"Wise  before  the  committee  prejudicial  to  Gen.  Cass,  were  all 
founded  on  the  hearsay  and  information  of  others,  and  not  on 
any  knowledge  of  Mr.  Wise  himself.  He  adverted  to  certain 
extracts  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Yancy,  of  Alabama,  pronounc- 
ing Gen.  Cass  to  be  a  time-serving  politician  and  an  enemy  to 
the  South;  and  said,  Mr.  Yancy  was  a  disappointed  member  of 
the  Baltimore  Convention,  who  had  returned  home,  and  whatever 
he  was  saying,  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  high  testi- 
mony of  respect  for  the  public  character  and  private  virtues  of 
Gen.  Cass,  which  had  been  borne  by  such  whigs  as  Abbott  Law- 
rence, S.  S.  Prentiss  and  Bailie  Peyton.  Gov.  Brown  after 
pronouncing  the  highest  eulogium  on  Gen.  Cass  and  Gen. 
Butler  in  peace  and  in  war,  in  the  Cabinet  and  the  field,  said 
he  must  pass  on  to  a  more  grave  objection  taken  by  Gov. 
Jones  to  the  election  of  Gen.  Cass. 

That  objection  was,  that  the  election  of  Lewis  Cass  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States  would  be  an  endorsement  of 
the  war  policy  of  this  administration — "  a  policy  of  invasion — 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  249 

of  aggression — of  territorial  aggrandizement which,  if  per- 
sisted in,  must  lead  to  the  destruction  of  our  government." 
And  pray,  sir,  have  you  not  already  endorsed  that  policy,  by 
the  selection  of  your  own  candidate  ?  He  has  been  the  very 
head  and  front  of  that  war.  He  has  gathered  all  his  laurels 
in  it.  Without  it  he  had  been  nothing: — with  it  he  has  be- 
come your  proud  and  boasted  candidate.  He  advised  every 
step  in  it.  He  advised  the  march  to  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  afterward  that  the  war  should  be  carried 
over  the  Rio  Grande  into  the  very  heart  and  vitals  of 
the  Republic.  He  entered  so  deeply  and  cordially  into  it, 
that  in  his  letter  to  Gen.  Gaines,  he  advised  the  capture  and 
retention  of  six  or  seven  of  her  finest  provinces  ;  and  yet, 
sir,  after  all,  you  go  down  into  the  blood  and  carnage  of 
this  unjust  and  damnable  war  and  pluck  up  your  candi- 
date for  the  Presidency.  Posterity  will  be  amazed  at  the 
inconsistency  and  absurdity  of  the  act.  But  I  meet  the  charge 
of  Gov.  Jones  with  a  positive  and  unequivocal  denial.  The 
war  policy  of  this  administration  has  not  been  aggressive — has 
not  been  for  territorial  aggrandizement,  and  I  challenge  him  at 
once  to  the  proof.  Sirs,  he  offers  you  none,  and  will  offer 
you  none.  He  prefers  charges  against  his  own  govern- 
ment which,  if  true,  ought  to  sink  it  to  the  lowest  depths 
of  infamy  and  dishonor — charges  that  present  this  noble 
Republic  as  standing  out  amongst  the  other  nations  of 
the  earth,  as  a  proud  despot,  bloated  with  the  plunder 
and  reeking  with  the  blood  of  a  weak,  innocent  and  help- 
less people  ;  and  yet  stops  not  and  cares  not  to  bring  for- 
ward one  fact,  or  to  adduce  one  argument,  to  support  the  foul 
impeachment.  Well,  if  he  will  not  j)rore  it,  I  will  disprove  it. 
Since  this  war  has  been  ended  and  our  armies  withdrawn, 
Mexico,  by  her  commissioners  who  negotiated  the  treaty,  has 
acknowledged  that  she  did  not  own  one  acre  of  territory  on 
this  side  the  Rio  del  Norte ;  that  she  had  not  owned  one  acre 
of  it  since  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto  ;  that  in  every  attempt  she 
had  made  to  regain  it,  she  had  been  whipped  oif  from  it,  "  leav- 
ing the  country  between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Nueces  abso- 
lutely free."  Absolutely  free  !  This  is  the  free  and  voluntary 
confession  of  one  of  the  parties  to  the  controversy,  and  is  the 


250  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

very  highest  and  best  authority.  Reverdy  Johnson,  one  of 
your  ablest  Senators,  last  winter,  after  deep  and  profound  in- 
vestigation, stated  the  same  facts  in  almost  the  same  words, 
and  expressly  declared,  "  that  from  the  commencement  of  the 
revolution  of  1834  to  the  independence  declared  by  Texas  in 
1836 — from  that  period  to  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the 
Union  in  1845,  and  from  '45  to  the  present  hour,  no  Mexican 
document  can  be  found,  military  or  civil — no  Mexican  officer, 
civil  or  military,  has  ever  been  known  maintaining  that  the  terri- 
tory lying  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  belonged  to 
Mexico,  by  any  other  title  than  that  which  she  maintained  to 
the  whole  territory  between  the  Sabine  and  the  Rio  Grande." 
I  pause  and  stand  on  these  two  recent  authorities,  and  demand 
of  Gov.  Jones  to  overturn  them  or  take  back  the  bold  and  dis- 
gracing charges  made  against  his  own  government.  Reverdy 
Johnson,  one  of  the  ablest  whigs  in  Congress,  tells  you  you  are 
wrong.  Mexico  herself,  the  only  party  interested  against  us, 
tells  you  you  are  wrong,  and  your  heart  ought  to  leap  with  joy 
from  the  Mexican  to  the  American  side  of  the  question. 

If  then  the  lower  Rio  Grande,  to  which  only  the  army  was 
sent,  were  the  true  boundary  between  the  United  States  (after 
annexation)  and  Mexico,  every  doubt  and  shadow  of  doubt, 
about  the  justice,  the  constitutionality  and  necessity  of  the 
Mexican  war  vanishes  at  once.  The  war  policy  of  the  Presi- 
dent instantly  becomes  one  of  self-defence,  protecting  from  in- 
vasion every  portion  of  our  wide-spreading  Republic.  Yes, 
sirs,  after  all  you  have  heard,  the  President,  has  only  acted  on 
the  principles  of  self-defence.  The  Mexican  army,  in  the  night 
time,  crossed  the  true  boundary,  with  the  view  of  re-conquering 
the  whole  of  Texas,  assailed  our  army  and  murdered  our  people 
on  our  own  soil,  as  is  now  admitted  by  Mexico  herself.  But 
Gov.  Jones  tells  us,  however  all  this  may  be,  that  I  told  you 
in  1844  that  there  would  be  no  war,  and  therefore  I  was  a 
false  prophet  on  the  subject.  Well,  sir,  who  falsified  my  pro- 
phecy? Not  Mexico — but  you — your  party — you  as  good 
as  sent  word  to  her  that  she  had  given  up  Texas  too  easily — 
that  she  had  a  good  title  to  it,  and  that  if  she  would  assert  it, 
that  Heaven  would  take  sides  with  her,  and  that  it  would  be 
downright  robbery  for  the  United  States  to  take  it  from  her. 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  251 

So  encouraged  she  did  go  to  war  for  it,  and  if  I  and  my  party- 
were  bad  prophets,  you  and  your  party  were  worse  patriots. 
But  I  charge,  (said  Gov.  Brown,)  not  only  that  the  immediate 
origin  of  this  war  (annexation  being  the  remote  one)  is  to  be 
attributed  to  the  course  and  conduct  of  your  party,  but  that 
its  procrastination,  with  all  the  consequent  loss  of  life  and 
treasure,  lies  at  your  door. 

Your  whig  speeches  were  thrown  broadcast  throughout  Mex- 
ico ;  our  army  marching  from  hacienda  to  hacienda  every  where 
met  with  them.  Your  whig  leaders  were  enrolled  as  honorary 
members  upon  the  pages  of  Mexican  societies,  and  their  pub- 
lic journals  proclaimed  that  no  treaty  should  be  made  until 
their  friends  should  succeed  in  turning  James  K.  Polk  out  and 
turning  themselves  into  power — then,  and  not  till  then,  they 
said,  should  a  treaty  be  made  and  peace  restored  to  the  two 
countries.  Yes,  sir,  and  you  speak  of  the  blood  that  has  been 
shed  and  the  precious  lives  that  have  been  lost  in  this  war. 
Walkabout  the  graveyards  of  the  city  of  Mexico;  pass  by 
those  on  the  great  National  road  from  Vera  Cruz  ;  pause  at 
that  great  one  at  New  Orleans,  and  if  the  brave  and  gallant 
dead  could  rise  from  their  resting  places,  with  uplifted  hands, 
they  would  exclaim,  "  We  owe  our  death  to  the  conduct  of 
our  own  countrymen."  The  balls  that  sent  many  of  these  brave 
defenders  of  their  country  to  their  long  homes  were  wrapped 
up  in  the  speeches  of  distinguished  leaders  of  the  whig  party. 
Sir,  there  is  no  disguising,  no  excusing,  no  palliating  great  and 
distressing  facts  likes  these,  and  it  is  time  for  patriots  of  every 
age  and  name  and  party  to  enter  a  solemn  protest  against 
such  conduct.  The  leaders  and  managers  of  the  whig  party 
have  too  long  and  two  often  exhibited  a  fatal  proclivity  in 
every  difficulty  with  a  foreign  nation  to  take  sides  against  their 
own  government — I  say  against  their  own  government ;  I  will 
not  say  against  their  own  country. 

In  our  difficulties  with  France  to  compel  her  to  pay  up  in- 
demnities, which  she  had  solemnly  bound  herself  by  treaty  to 
do,  your  party  took  sides  against  their  own  government.  When 
the  Indians  had  murdered  men,  women,  and  children  on  our 
southern  border,  and  Gen.  Jackson  recommended  war  for  their 
protection,  your  party,  with  a  few  honorable  exceptions,  took 


252  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

sides  against  their  own  government.  When,  in  that  war,  Gen. 
Taylor,  recommended  the  use  of  bloodhounds  to  hunt  up  the 
Indians  in  their  lairs,  you  cried  "  down  with  him  and  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  for  this  wanton,  wicked  and  unchristian  warfare  ;"  but 
now  this  very  bloodhound  adviser  is  lauded  to  the  skies  as  "  the 
greatest  and  the  best."  When  we  were  on  the  verge  of  war 
with  Great  Britain  for  Oregon,  you  took  sides  with  England  on 
the  question  of  title,  and  forced  your  own  government  to  a 
compromise,  which  you  now  say  it  was  base  and  cowardly  in 
Polk  to  have  made.  When  it  was  proposed  to  strengthen  and 
enlarge  our  own  country  by  the  free  and  voluntary  annexation 
of  Texas,  you  took  sides  against  your  own  government,  and 
contended  that  it  would  be  downright  robbery  on  Mexico,  thereby 
as  good  as  sending  word  to  Mexico  to  stand  out  for  it  and 
Heaven  would  sustain  her  in  the  claim.  And  when  war  did 
come,  and  our  country  was  actually  invaded  and  our  people 
murdered  on  our  own  soil,  they  took  sides  against  their  own 
government,  and,  what  is  still  worse,  they  continue  yet  so  to 
take  sides,  against  all  the  light  and  evidence  which  truth  and 
history,  with  all  their  power  and  effulgence,  can  shed  upon  the 
subject.  History  has  recorded  these  high,  portentous  facts,  and 
it  is  with  a  heart  full  of  sorrow  and  indignation  that  I  recite 
its  burning  pages. 

Gov.  Jones  prefers  another  charge  against  Gen.  Cass,  to 
which  I  wish  now  briefly  to  reply.  He  warns  you  against  him 
as  a  northern  man,  whom  you  cannot  trust  on  the  great  ques- 
tions growing  out  of  our  peculiar  southern  institution.  Sir,  I 
challenge  proudly  a  comparison  of  candidates  in  this  respect. 
You  call  on  your's  for  his  opinions  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 
He  shakes  his  head  in  awful  and  ominous  silence.  When 
called  on  to  the  north,  in  one  of  your  speeches,  to  say  how 
Gen.  Taylor  is  on  that  great  question,  you  frankly  admit  that 
you  do  not  know.  Others,  with  better  opportunities,  declare 
that  he  is  against  any  further  extension  of  slavery,  and  that  he 
would  not  veto  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  Caleb  B.  Smith,  mem- 
ber of  Congress,  says  he  is  with  the  north  on  that  subject ;  Mr. 
Ewing,  of  Ohio,  says  he  is  with  the  north  ;  King  and  Ashman, 
members  of  Congress  from  Massachusetts,  say  so ;  Coalter, 
from  New  Hampshire,  and  Trueman  Smith,  from  Connecticut, 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  253 

say  so  ;  and  hundreds  of  others  assert  it  with  a  boldness  and 
confidence  which  seems  to  be  founded  on  actual  knowledge. 
Now,  sir,  if  Gen.  Taylor  were  right  on  that  subject,  would  he 
siiaKe  his  head  at  you ;  would  he  put  his  finger  on  his  lips  ; 
would  he  leave  his  friend  Gov.  Jones  to  grope  his  way  here 
through  the  State  of  Tennessee,  unable  to  say  how  his  candi- 
date is  on  the  great  question  of  the  age — a  question  on  which 
the  continuance  and  permanence  of  this  Union  may  depend  ? 
When  I  look  upon  you,  sir,  every  day,  panting  and  laboring 
under  this  load,  I  cannot  but  think  of  St.  Paul  when  he  stood 
on  Mars'  Hill  and  exclaimed,  "  Ye  men  of  Athens !  I  perceive 
that  in  all  things  ye  are  too  superstitious.  For  as  I  passed  by 
and  beheld  your  devotions ,  I  found  an  altar  with  this  inscrip- 
tion :  ■  To  the  Unknown  God.'  "  Yes,  sir,  I  see  your  inscrip- 
tions every  day  to  the  unknown  god  whom  you  ignorantly 
worship.  You  pray  to  him,  but  he  will  not  answer  you ;  you 
call  upon  him,  but  he  will  not  unveil  himself  to  you,  on  no  one 
subject,  in  no  one  particular,  in  no  form,  nor  shape,  nor  man- 
ner. He  will  not  thunder  to  you  from  the  mountain,  nor  blaze 
before  you  in  a  burning  bush — all  is  doubt,  and  mystery,  and 
uncertainty. 

But,  sir,  how  is  it  on  the  other  side?  Gen.  Cass  leaving 
the  strong  side  comes  over  to  the  weak  one ;  giving  up  early 
and  hasty  impressions,  he  follows  the  deep  and  constitutional 
convictions  of  his  mind,  and  boldly  declares  that  the  south  is 
right  on  this  great  question,  and  that  he  will  rise  or  fall  with 
her  upon  it.  What  is  that  the  south  is  needing  in  this  trying 
and  critical  moment  ?  Not  friends  in  the  south,  for  if  the  whole 
south  stood  as  one  man,  (Gen.  Taylor  and  all,)  still  she  would 
have  a  majority  of  forty  against  her.  She,  therefore,  needs 
friends  in  the  north — some  strong  man,  with  strong  friends, 
who  will  stand  by  her.  Such  a  man  is  Lewis  Cass,  and  the 
friends,  those  who  stand  by  him  in  this  election.  With  him  and 
them  as  her  allies,  the  dark  clouds  that  now  hang  over  her 
may  be  dispelled,  and  our  country  start  afresh  in  a  new  career 
of  glory  and  of  greatness. 

But  with  what  sort  of  grace,  said  Gov.  Brown,  can  our  ad- 
versaries object  to  the  northern  residence  of  Gen.  Cass  ?  Look 
to  your  own  ticket  for  Vice  President.     Compare  it  with  ours— 


254  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

Butler  and  Fillmore ;  both  in  Congress  for  ye-ars  together. 
Butler  true  as  steel  to  the  south  on  every  occasion ;  Fillmore 
recording,  on  many  occasions,  the  most  fatal  votes  to  her  safety 
and  her  interest.  I  do  not  hesitate  this  day  to  declare  that 
neither  Adams,  nor  Slade,  nor  Giddings,  have  ever  recorded 
stronger  votes  against  you.  Out  of  a  multitude,  I  will  give 
you  one  that  stamps  him  indelibly  a3  one  of  your  worst  and 
greatest  enemies.  You  may  vote  for  him  if  you  choose,  but 
you  shall  not  do  so  without  knowing  that  you  place  in  your 
Senate  Chamber  a  man  that  may  have  to  give  the  casting  vote 
on  your  nearest  and  dearest  interests,  and  who  would  as  surely 
give  it  against  you  as  you  place  him  in  the  office. 

In  1838,  Mr.  Fillmore,  with  Mr.  Adams  and  others,  voted 
against  the  following  resolution :  "  Congress,  in  the  exercise 
of  its  acknowledged  powers,  has  no  right  to  discriminate  be- 
tween the  institutions  of  one  portion  of  the  States  and  another, 
with  the  view  of  abolishing  the  one  and  promoting  the  other." 
Here  is  a  vote,  (among  many  others,)  about  which  there  can 
be  no  mistake.  He  expressly  declares,  that  Congress  has  the 
right  to  discriminate  against  your  slave  property,  and  that  too, 
with  the  view  of  abolishing  it.  It  is  the  very  essence  or  marrow 
of  abolition  itself.  No  sophistry  can  explain  it  away — no  ar- 
gument can  justify  or  defend  it.  It  stands  out  in  bold  and 
monstrous  relief;  it  looks  every  man  of  the  south  right  in  the 
face,  and  bids  him  with  a  defiance  to  vote  for  Millard  Fillmore 
at  his  peril !  And  peril  it  you  may,  but  you  shall  not  have  it 
to  say  that  I  did  not  warn  you  against  the  murderous  deed. 
When  this  man  shall  have  been  elected ;  when  he  shall  have 
given  the  casting  vote  against  you  in  the  Senate ;  when  the 
news  shall  fall  upon  you  like  the  sound  of  a  fire-bell  at  night ; 
when  the  fires  of  fanaticism  and  of  insurrection  shall  have 
united  their  hellish  blaze ;  when  your  hearthstones  shall  be 
blackened,  and  your  altars  stained  with  the  blood  of  your 
own  household,  say  not  that  Aaron  V.  Brown  was  an  unfaith- 
ful sentinel  on  the  watchtowers  of  liberty. 

But  I  am  admonished  that  my  allotted  time  has  nearly  ex- 
pired. I  can  only  appeal  to  you  to  pause,  and  to  pause  long, 
before  you  call  a  mere  military  man — with  no  experience,  with 
no  opinions  yet  formed  or  matured,  or  if  matured,  who  has  not 


ON   THE  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION.  255 

and  will  not  make  a  disclosure  of  them — to  the  Presidency  of 
this  great  republic.  There  can  be  no  necessity  for  so  rash  and, 
until  now,  so  unprecedented  an  attempt.  For  more  than  twenty 
years  our  government,  with  but  a  single  exception,  has  been 
in  democratic  hands,  and  has  advanced  in  all  the  elements  of 
national  greatness  with  the  most  astonishing  rapidity.  There 
can  be  no  necessity  to  turn  out  the  old  and  long  tried  demo- 
cratic pilots  who  have  steered  the  great  vessel  of  State.  The 
new  ones  proposed  are  untried  and  unpractised — they  never 
looked  on  her  compass  nor  touched  her  helm  in  all  their  lives. 
Four  years  ago,  when  the  good  old  ship  sailed  out,  you  were 
confidently  told  that  she  never  would  return — that  she  would  be 
driven  upon  the  rocks,  and  shoals,  and  quicksands,  and  finally  be 

"  In  the  deep  bosom  of  the  ocean  buried." 

But,  thank  God  !  yonder  she  comes,  with  all  her  sails  set,  riding 
gallantly  into  port !  All  I  ask  of  you  before  you  make  this 
great  change  is,  to  go  down  with  me  and  examine  the  state  and 
condition  of  the  good  old  vessel  of  State.  Look  at  her  capa- 
cious and  noble  hull — her  towering  masts,  peering  upward 
toward  the  clouds — her  everlasting  timbers,  bidding  defiance 
to  the  waves  and  the  tempest.  Walk  about  her  mighty  bul- 
warks— turn  toward  her  mast-head,  and  gaze  upon  the  stars 
and  stripes  that  have  carried  your  name,  your  fame,  your  power, 
over  all  the  habitable  globe — four  more  stars  than  you  ever  saw 
shine  there  before.  But  all  these  relate  to  the  outside,  the  mere 
exterior  of  the  noble  vessel :  what  of  her  cargo  ?  It  is  precious 
and  priceless.  Our  commerce  ?  Under  the  influence  of  re- 
venue duties  only,  it  is  larger  than  it  ever  was  before.  Our 
agriculture?  It  has  fed  half  the  starving  nations  of  Europe. 
Our  navigation  ?  Boundless  as  the  oceans  of  the  earth.  Our 
mechanical  arts  and  sciences  ?  They  have  filled  the  world  with 
astonishment.  But  tell  us — tell  us,  what  of  the  Union,  the  ark 
of  our  political  salvation?  Safely  brought  home  to  you, 
brighter  and  stronger  than  ever.  What  of  the  constitution  ? 
Brought  back,  too,  sound  and  unbroken.  Our  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberties,  what  of  them  ?  Here  they  are,  pure  and  invio- 
late as  when  they  were  first  baptised  in  the  blood  of  the  revo- 
lution. What  patriotic  voice  is  not  ready  to  exclaim,  then  all 
is  well !  all  is  well ! 


SPEECH 

Of   Gov,  Aaron    V,  Brown,  on  the  issues  of  the    Presidential 
Canvass,  delivered  at  Columbia,  August,  6,  1852. 


Fellow  Citizens  : — If  the  departed  spirits  of  that  noble  race 
of  men  who  first  settled  this  country  were  permitted  to  revisit 
the  earth,  with  what  astonishment  would  they  behold  what  is 
now  transpiring  amongst  us  !  They  lived  in  the  days  of  Jef- 
ferson and  Madison ;  they  saw  them,  heard  them,  and  fought 
with  them  the  great  battle  against  federalism  in  1798  and  1801. 
From  their  hallowed  lips  they  had  received  the  sacred  doctrines 
of  the  Constitution,  that  every  State  should  be  equal,  and 
every  individual  protected  in  life,  liberty  and  property. 

With  what  amazement  would  they  now  learn  that  since  their 
departure,  some  strange  and  undefined  power  had  been  disco- 
vered in  our  government  higher  than  the  Constitution  ! — that 
in  fact  abrogates  that  instrument,  with  all  its  compromises  and 
guarantees !  A  power  that  claims  the  right  to  demolish  nine 
hundred  millions  of  southern  property  at  a  single  blow,  and 
thus  to  reduce  at  once  a  whole  people  to  beggary  and  want. 

With  what  further  amazement  would  they  behold  the  fact, 
that  a  party  holding  such  dangerous  doctrines,  had  grown  from 
a  mere  speck,  a  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  now  to  be 
so  strong  as  to  lay  hold  on  one  of  the  political  parties  of  the 
country,  and  dictate  to  it  both  a  creed  and  a  candidate  !  I  re- 
peat, both  a  creed  and  a  candidate  !  It  is  to  demonstrate  this 
great  fact,  that  I  am  here  to-day.  To  demonstrate  it,  not  to 
the  whigs,  not  to  the  democrats,  but  to  candid  and  impartial 
men  of  all  parties. 

That  dark  power,  whose  deadly  influences  I  propose  to  trace, 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  255 

is  neither  whig  nor  democratic.  It  has  risen  up  in  spite  of 
them  both,  and  would  plant  its  iron  heel  on  the  neck  of  the  one 
as  soon  as  of  the  other.  The  abolition  party  is  exotic  in  its  ori- 
gin, and  took  its  rise  in  the  bigotry  and  fanaticism  of  the  old 
world.  In  the  short  period  of  a  single  generation,  it  overawed 
the  British  Parliament,  and  demolished  the  whole  system  of 
West  India  slavery.  It  compelled  the  provisional  government 
of  France,  no  later  than  1848,  to  abolish  it  in  her  colonies, 
giving  to  her  outraged  owners  only  two  months  for  prepara- 
tion. Denmark  and  Sweden  have  followed  in  the  same  career. 
Nearly  one  million  and  a  half  of  slaves  have  been  liberated 
against  the  will  of  their  owners  under  European  agitation. 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  greatest  of  England's  modern  statesmen, 
looking  at  these  great  and  speedy  results,  has  expressed  the 
belief  "  that  the  doom  of  slavery  is  sealed  ;  that  it  cannot  long 
survive ;  that  it  must,  at  no  remote  period,  be  extinguished." 
Such  are  the  signs  and  warnings  of  the  old  world — what  are 
they  in  our  own  country  ? 

Innumerable  societies  are  scatterred  over  the  States  of  the 
North.  The  great  basis  on  which  they  are  founded  is  this : 
"  We  hold  slavery  to  be  an  evil  now,  and  of  course  must  be 
emancipated  now.  If  the  thief  (say  they)  be  found  with  stolen 
property,  he  must  relinquish  it  at  once.  To  hold  the  colored 
man  in  vassalage,  must  ere  long  break  up  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep,  and  unsheath  the  sword  of  vengeance,  revolution 
and  death."  Such  is  the  fundamental  creed  and  foundation  of 
the  abolition  party :  universal  emancipation,  or  vengeance,  rev- 
olution and  death !  Such  is  their  creed :  what  has  been  their 
progress  ?  They  have  overawed  most  of  the  public  men  of 
the  North,  and  cut  off  the  heads  of  such  as  Fillmore  and  Web- 
ster, who  ventured  to  demur  to  their  unconstitutional  demands. 
They  have  entered  the  legislatures  of  nearly  every  northern 
State,  and  tied  up  the  hands  of  their  senators  by  the  most  posi- 
tive instructions.  They  have  forced  their  way  into  the  halls  of 
Congress,  breaking  down  the  21st  rule,  the  only  barrier  that 
could  be  erected  by  the  wise  men  of  the  South.  They  have 
broken  the  churches  asunder,  because  they  would  not  walk 
with  the  slaveholder  even  in  the  road  to  heaven.  They  have 
measured  arms  with  the  government  itself  on  the  fugitive 
18 


25G  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

slave  bill,  bidding  defiance  to  its  marshals,  imprisoning  the 
master  who  claimed  his  slave,  or  closing  the  scene,  as  at  Chris- 
tiana, in  murder  and  blood. 

It  was  at  a  period  when  the  abolitionists  had  achieved  so 
many  triumphs,  and  were  flushed  with  so  many  victories,  that 
the  whig  and  democratic  parties  assembled  at  Baltimore. 
The  selection  of  candidates  was  a  matter  of  no  peculiar  in- 
terest to  either,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  old  issues  which  had 
originally  divided  them.  They  were  considered  either  as  ob- 
solete, or  were  permitted  to  slumber  beneath  the  intense  and 
all-absorbing  question  of  slavery.  Not  a  whig,  nor  a  demo- 
cratic delegate  was  known  of,  who  left  the  South,  but  with  the 
great  master-passion  of  his  soul,  not  to  nominate  any  candi- 
date who  was  not  true  to  the  rights  of  the  South — true  to  the 
Constitution,  and  true  to  the  fugitive  slave  bill  founded  on  the 
Constitution.  The  democratic  party  knew  no  better  mode  of 
ascertaining  the  sentiments  of  their  candidates  than  to  address 
letters  to  them,  asking  for  a  full  public  declaration  of  their 
views.  They  all  declared  that  they  would  veto  any  bill  pro- 
posing a  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  General  Pierce  was 
not  a  candidate.  He  had  refused  to  permit  his  friends,  either 
in  New  Hampshire  or  in  the  convention,  to  present  his  name 
in  that  light.  He  was  not  at  home  when  the  letter  of  Captain 
Scott  was  received.  He  was  absent  with  a  sick  family,  and 
never  expected  his  name  to  be  used  in  that  connection.  But 
he  had  letters  there  addressed  to  his  New  Hampshire  friends, 
declaring  that  "  if  the  compromise  measures  are  not  to  be  sub- 
stantially and  firmly  maintained,  the  plain  rights  secured  by 
the  Constitution  will  be  trampled  in  the  dust*"  The  moment 
he  said  the  fugitive  slave  bill  was  founded  on  the  Constitution, 
and  secured  rights  under  it,  there  is  no  tyro  in  America  who 
does  not  know  that,  under  the  democratic  creed,  that  is  equiva- 
lent to  a  declaration  that  he  would  veto  its  repeal.  So  that  it 
may  be  safely  averred,  that  every  body  who  had  been  spoken 
of  as  likely  to  be  presented,  was  there  either  by  letter  expressly, 
or  by  necessary  and  obvious  consequence,  declaring  that  they 
would  veto  all  attempts  at  its  repeal.  With  all  their  candi- 
dates breathing  such  noble  sentiments,  no  difficulty  could  be 
experienced   in   the   selection.      Cass,  Buchanan,   Douglass, 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  257 

Marcy  and  others,  had  their  friends  who  for  a  long  time  were 
unwilling  to  give  them  up.  Virginia  at  last,  to  end  the  strife  of 
friends,  not  of  foes,  led  off  for  Franklin  Pierce.  State  after 
State  followed  her  example,  until  he  was  made  the  nominee 
by  general  acclamation.  Nor  was  there  the  slightest  difficulty 
about  our  platform.  The  public  declarations,  the  known  and 
recorded  sentiments  of  every  candidate,  or  person  spoken  of, 
made  that  an  easy  work.  No  abolitionists  were  there,  polluting 
our  councils  or  resisting  our  platform.  A  few  that  had  once 
been  known  as  freesoilers,  cheerfully  abandoned  the  heresy. 
They  returned  to  their  democratic  allegiance,  bringing  with 
them  "  fruits  meet  for  repentence,"  a  willingness  and  determin- 
ation to  stand  by  the  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  bill,  as 
well  as  all  other  parts  of  the  compromise.  Here  is  the  great 
difference  on  this  point  between  the  two  conventions — we  re- 
ceived only  the  penitent,  who  renounced  his  transgressions; 
whilst  they  took  them  as  they  came,  with  all  their  sins  bloom- 
ing upon  them,  voting  against  their  platform  and  bidding  de- 
fiance to  them  in  their  teeth. 

Our  platform  was  read  clearly  and  distinctly  by  Mr.  French, 
in  my  opinion  the  best  reading  clerk  in  America.  He  paused 
at  the  close  of  every  resolution.  The  slavery  one  he  read 
twice,  and  twice  did  the  shouts  of  approval  ascend  from  all 
parts  of  the  spacious  hall.  There  was  no  leaving  of  members, 
for  the  convention,  at  the  moment  of  its  adoption,  was  almost 
crowded  to  suffocation. 

Let  us  turn  now  with  every  degree  of  fairness  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  whig  convention.  I  grant  to  the  whigs  of  the 
south  an  equal  but  not  a  greater  devotion  to  the  compromise — 
an  equal  but  not  a  greater  determination  to  maintain  the 
rights  of  the  south  against  the  dark  and  demon  spirit  of  fana- 
ticism. They  ought  to  have.  They  have  as  much,  I  think 
more  property  at  stake  than  we  have.  They  have  homes  to 
be  desolated  and  families  whose  peace,  safety  and  repose  are 
as  dear  to  them  as  ours  can  be  to  us.  But  too  intent  upon  a 
mere  party  triumph,  they  took  no  precautions  as  we  did  to 
purge  their  convention — to  drive  the  abolitionists  from  it. 
They  put  no  interrogatories  to  their  candidates  as  we  did.  Had 
they  done  so  Mr.  Fillmore  would  have  answered,  I  will  main- 


258  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

tain  the  fugitive  slave  law  as  I  have  done  through  my  admin- 
istration. Mr.  Webster  would  have  answered,  I  too  will  main- 
tain it  as  I  have  done  as  one  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  cabinet.  What 
would  Gen.  Scott  have  answered?  Why,  "that  I  will  not 
answer."  Such  a  response  would  have  turned  him  and  all  his 
abolition  supporters  out  of  the  convention.  This  would  have 
purified  the  party  and  left  it  standing  as  of  yore  on  a  high 
national  platform.  But  suppose  Gen.  Scott  had  answered  pub- 
licly that  like  Fillmore  and  Webster  he  too  would  maintain  and 
execute  the  fugitive  slave  law.  Why  then  Gen.  Scott  would 
have  stood  in  high  and  honorable  rivalry  for  the  nomination, 
whilst  the  abolitionists  would  have  gone  out.  They  would  have 
said  to  themselves,  "What  do  we  do  here  ?  Fillmore  is  against 
us,  Webster  is  against  us,  and  now  Scott,  from  whom  we  ex- 
pected better  things,  has  also  come  out  against  us.  We  must 
withdraw,  hold  a  convention  of  our  own  and  flash  the  standard 
of  Wm.  H.  Seward  in  the  face  of  our  foes,  whig  and  demo- 
cratic." I  know  it  is  a  great  outrage  both  against  fact  and 
probability  even  to  suppose  that  Gen.  Scott  would  have  answer- 
ed like  Fillmore  and  Webster  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  fugi- 
tive slave  law.  He  was  tried  upon  that  point  in  another  way 
equally  binding  and  impressive.  Long  before  the  convention 
he  received  a  letter  from  one  of  his  fellow-citizens  asking  him 
to  give  his  opinions  publicly  in  favor  of  that  measure :  his 
answer  was,  I  will  not.  A  Senator  from  Tennessee  on  the  sab- 
bath day  went  to  him  and  desired  him  to  come  out :  his  answer 
was  again  substantially,  I  will  not.  He  gave  this  trisyllabic 
response  to  ever  body  and  on  all  occassions.  Sirs,  he  might 
have  better  said  to  Governor  Jones,  "  I  cannot  come  out — 
don't  you  see  how  I  am  situated — don't  you  see  that  it  is 
the  abolition  legislatures  that  have  nominated  me — don't 
you  see  that  all  the  abolition  papers  have  my  name  flying 
at  their  head  ?  Don't  you  see  by  the  vote  even  yester- 
day that  the  sixty-six  friends  of  Mr.  Seward  who  voted  against 
the  platform  would  instantly  desert  me  and  leave  the  conven- 
tion? Why  my  dear  Governor  you  are  not  really  up  to  these 
things.  I  don't  want  them  to  go  out,  I  want  them  to  stay  in. 
If  they  stay  I  get  the  nomination — if  they  go  out  I  lose  it. 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  259 

What  signifies  the  purification  of  the  whig  party  if  I  lose  the 
presidency." 

Sirs,  I  must  not  elaborate.  1  must  pass  on  to  the  closing 
scene  of  this  nomination.  For  fifty  ballots  the  friends  of 
Fillmore  stood  firm,  the  friends  of  Webster  stood  firm,  and 
the  south  began  to  feel  some  assurance  of  her  safety.  The 
hope  was  deLisive.  The  hour  was  come,  when  according 
to  many  signs  and  secret  whisperings  through  the  convention, 
when  enough  of  Tennessee  would  desert  Mr.  Fillmore  and  go 
over  to  General  Scott  to  secure  his  nomination.  Yes,  the 
hour  had  come  and  the  deed  was  done.  Instantly  the  sixty- 
six  abolitionists  who  voted  against  the  platform,  who  trampled 
upon  it  and  scorned  it,  raised  the  shout  of  exultation.  Seward 
himself  issued  his  circular  to  them  congratulating  them  "  that 
in  voting  for  Scott,  they  had  preserved  fidelity  to  him  and  to 
their  sacred  principles  of  freedom  and  toleration."  What  did 
Seward  mean  in  this  exulting  congratulation  ?  Why  should 
they  be  faithful  to  Scott  ?  Because  he  had  been  faithful  to 
them  in  not  coming  out  publicly  against  them  as  Fillmore  and 
Webster  had  done.  How  had  they  been  faithful  to  their  prin- 
ciples of  freedom  and  toleration  ?  By  voting  against  the  fugi- 
tive slave  bill  as  put  down  in  the  platform.  Here  is  the  true 
key  to  unlock  the  secret  connection  between  the  abolition  party 
and  Gen.  Scott.  He  needed  their  votes  to  outnumber  Mr. 
Fillmore  and  Mr.  Webster  in  the  convention,  and  they  needed 
his  great  name  and  reputation  to  drag  them  upward  to  the 
level  of  one  of  the  regular  national  parties  of  the  nation.  Sirs, 
this  connection  of  facts  ought  to  make  the  blood  curdle  in  your 
veins.  It  tells  you,  I  fear,  in  the  language  of  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
that  your  doom  is  sealed  ! 

Do  you  ask  how  the  nomination  and  election  of  Gen.  Scott 
can  seal  the  doom  of  the  south?  Hear  me  silently  and  thought- 
fully and  I  will  tell  you.  Whose  candidate  would  Millard 
Fillmore  have  been  ?  The  candidate  of  the  southern  whigs. 
Why  ?  Because  a  majority  of  his  friends  were  such.  Whose 
candidate  would  Daniel  Webster  have  been  ?  Of  the  northern 
whigs.  Why?  Because  a  majority  of  his  friends  were  such. 
Whose  candidate  is  Gen.  Scott  ?  Of  the  abolitionists  and 
freesoilers.    Why  ?    Because  a  majority  of  his  friends  were 


260  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

abolitionists  and  freesoilers.  Without  them  he  could  not  have 
been  the  candidate,  but  with  them  he  is.  He  had  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  votes,  sixty-six  of  these,  being  a  majority, 
voted  against  the  platform  even  emasculated  as  it  was.  It 
was  to  these  sixty-six,  that  Seward  addressed  the  circular  let- 
ter of  congratulation,  that  they  had  preserved  their  sacred 
principles  of  freedom  and  toleration.  Thus  it  is  that  if  there 
is  truth  in  records  and  power  in  logic,  he  is  the  abolitionist 
and  freesoil  candidate. 

Now  what  follows  this  great  fact  ?  That  you  have  lifted  up 
and  given  rank  and  importance  to  this  dangerous  party.  In 
social  life  he  who  marries  a  woman  lifts  her  up  at  once  to  his 
own  rank  and  condition.  So  Gen.  Scott  having  allied  himself 
to  this  party,  comes  up  with  it  leaning  on  his  arm,  and  demands 
its  recognition  as  one  of  the  great  and  respectable  parties  of 
the  country.  The  South  may  protest  against  it.  She  my  protest 
ever  so  solemnly;  but  amid  the  war  plumes  of  the  soldier  and  the 
cunning  sophistry  of  those  who  have  solemnized  the  unholy 
banns,  she  may  be  lulled  into  an  acquiescence,  which  must 
prove  to  her  fatal  as  the  sleep  of  death!  It  is  argued  that,  not- 
withstanding all  these  facts  poisoning  the  very  fountain  of  his 
nomination,  that  Gen.  Scott  is  in  fact  a  friend  to  the  South, 
with  no  dangerous  affinities  for  the  freesoilers  and  abolition- 
ists. I  deny  it ;  every  word  of  it.  They  have  not  given  him 
this  nomination  without  cause.  He  has  for  years  been  bidding 
for  the  Presidency — -to  the  anti-Masons — to  the  native  Ameri- 
can party  against  foreigners  ;  and  to  no  faction  and  to  no 
party  has  he  paid  court  more  assiduously  than  to  the  aboli- 
tionists and  freesoilers.  Look  to  the  great  turning  point  of 
this  slavery  agitation.  So  long  as  their  societies  were  confined 
in  their  labors  to  the  North,  they  were  harmless.  Their  travel- 
ling lecturers  and  inflammatory  publications,  could  exert  but 
little  influence  over  the  nation  at  large.  Hence  the  determin- 
ation was  formed,  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of  their  operations  by 
gaining  admittance  in  the  Halls  of  Congress.  Hear  their  own 
opinions  of  the  importance  of  getting  there  :  "  Before  slavery 
can  be  abolished  there  must  be  a  discussion  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject on  the  floors  of  both  houses  of  Congress.  All  the  argu- 
ments with  which  abolitionists  have  flooded  the  North  would 


OX  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  261 

then  be  brought  forward,  to  prove  the  instrinsic  iniquity,  the 
cruelty,  the  impolicy  of  slaveholding.  A  thorough  discussion 
of  this  whole  subject  in  the  halls  of  our  national  legislature, 
would  be  equal  to  a  discussion  in  the  legislature  of  every  slave- 
holding  State  in  the  Union.  The  act  of  abolition  being  done, 
the  moral  influence  would  pierce  the  heart  of  the  whole  system. 
It  would  pronounce  and  sign  its  death  warrant.  It  would  be 
the  solemn  verdict  of  the  nation  decreeing  the  annihilation  of 
this  dark  abomination.  It  would  write  in  letters  of  flashing  fire 
over  the  gateway  of  the  national  capitol,  *  no  admittance  for 
slavery.'  The  whole  system  would  be  thus  outlawed  and  brand- 
ed with  ignominy,  consigned  to  execration  and  ultimate  de- 
struction." 

The  South  saw  this  great  turning  point  in  their  fate.  They 
saw  Mr.  Adams  with  all  his  hatred  for  the  South,  step  forward 
as  their  champion,  and  inviting  them  to  come  forward  with 
their  petitions.  They  did  come  by  hundreds  and  thousands. 
Mr.  Adams  demanded  that  they  should  be  treated  in  all  re- 
spects like  other  petitions — that  they  should  be  received 
should  be  printed,  should  be  referred  to  a  committee  and  re- 
ported upon  and  debated.  Nothing  less  than  this  would  satisfy 
him.  The  South  insisted  that  to  do  all  this  would  be  ruinous 
to  her  safety  and  her  property.  That  these  inflammatory 
petitions  and  speeches  would  be  sent  all  over  the  slave  States, 
and  be  read  by  the  midnight  torch  on  their  plantations,  lead- 
ing to  insurrections  with  all  their  attendant  horrors.  For  the 
sake  of  peace,  for  the  sake  of  this  Union,  we  yielded  to  the  re- 
ception of  the  petitions — that  the  mover  should  state  their  con- 
tents, and  that  then  they  should  be  laid  on  the  table,  (equiva- 
lent to  a  rejection,)  without  being  printed,  without  reference 
and  without  debate.  Thu3  the  parties  took  their  positions. 
The  struggle  was  intense.  The  amount  at  stake  was  large, 
being  no  less  than  nine  hundred  millions  of  property  and  the 
safety  and  repose  of  every  southern  family.  One  northern 
man  after  another  deserted  us  and  went  over  to  Mr.  Adams. 
But  there  was  one  northern  man  who  did  not  and  would  not 
desert  us.  True  as  steel  and  with  a  heart  as  big  as  the  con- 
stitution he  stood  by  us  to  the  last.  That  man  was  General 
Franklin  Pierce.    For  that  deed  alone,  the  South  owes  him  a 


262  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

debt  of  everlasting  gratitude.  Day  after  day,  in  both  houses 
of  Congress,  he  stood  by  us,  speaking  for  us,  and  voting  with 
us,  against  John  Quincy  Adams,  through  that  arduous  strug- 
gle. Do  not  read  to  me  old  rusty  abolition  newspapers  :  you 
need  not  tell  me  what  this  or  that  poorly  informed  individual 
has  said  against  it.  I  know  what  I  say — for  I  both  saw  and 
heard  him.  Senator  Henderson,  a  whig  from  Mississippi,  sat 
by  him  and  says  that  he  is  the  truest  man  to  the  south  he  ever 
saw.  Besides,  sirs,  look  to  the  Journals  of  Congress.  I  have 
all  the  pages  here  and  will  give  copies  to  any  body  to  inspect 
them  by.  They  crush — they  annihilate  all  your  lying  news- 
papers and  your  drunken  or  prejudiced  certifiers  who  say 
that  Franklin  Pierce  was  unfaithful  to  the  constitution  or  the 
rights  of  the  south.  But  how  was  it  with  Gen.  Scott  ?  He 
was  in  the  regular  army,  a  soldier  by  profession,  and  need  not 
have  taken  sides  at  all.  But  ever  restless  and  ambitious  he 
must  step  forward  into  the  arena  and  throw  down  his  sword 
and  influence  at  the  feet  and  the  service  of  John  Quincy 
Adams.  He  threw  them  down  against  the  land  of  his  birth, 
"  his  own  native  land."  Open  his  own  life  now  carried  about 
by  all  his  advocates  and  there  read  his  letters  contending  that 
all  these  petitions  should  be  received  and  referred  and  treated 
in  all  respects  like  all  other  cases. 

This  was  one  of  the  deeds,  the  fatal  deeds,  that  attracted 
the  abolitionists  so  strongly  to  him  Let  me  present  you  to 
another.  "  I  am  persuaded,"  says  he  in  one  of  his  letters, 
"  that  it  is  a  high  moral  obligation  of  masters  and  slave-hold- 
ing States  to  employ  all  the  means  not  incompatible  with  the 
safety  of  both  colors  to  ameliorate  slavery  even  to  its  exter- 
mination." How  different  the  sentiment  attributed  to  Pierce 
and  which  is  common  among  all  northern  men,  and  frequent 
among  southern  ones,  that  slavery  is  asocial  and  political  evil. 
A  social,  not  a  moral  evil — a  social  one  is  supposed  to  affect 
society7  injuriously,  but  still  being  guaranteed  by  the  constitu- 
tion must  be  sustained  with  fidelity  and  honor.  Not  so  with 
Scott.  With  him  it  is  a  great  moral  evil — a  leprosy  on  the  con- 
science  of  the  master,  which  should  not  only  be  ameliorated 
but  actually  exterminated  from  the  land.  The  master  must  do 
it — the  State  must  do  it — and  nothing  must  stop  them  but  the 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL' ELECTION.  263 

safety  of  the  two  colors.  The  idea  of  constitutional  right  and 
guarantee  of  property  never  once  enters  into  his  calculation. 
What  is  this  but  the  sentiments  and  almost  the  very  language 
of  the  abolition  party  ?  This  is  the  second  cord  that  bound 
them  to  him. 

The  third  one  is,  that  during  the  whole  discussion  and  con- 
troversy about  the  compromise  questions,  when  parties  were 
almost  engaged  in  mortal  combat  and  when  the  Union  was 
reeling  and  tottering  under  the  mighty  conflict,  when  Cass,  and 
Calhoun,  and  Buchanan,  and  Clay,  and  Webster,  and  Fillmore, 
boldly  stept  forward  to  rebuke  the  fanatics  of  the  north  and  to 
restrain  the  too  much  exasperated  sons  of  the  south,  Winfield 
Scott  looked  calmly  on  and  failed  to  say  one  word  or  to  write 
one  line  publicly  denouncing  their  fanatic  aggressions — looked 
calmly  on,  when  great  mobs  in  our  cities  were  putting  all  laws 
at  defiance,  imprisoning  our  southern  friends  for  demanding 
their  own  property ;  nay  more,  when  they  were  literally  mur- 
dered in  open  day,  with  the  law  of  Congress  in  the  one  hand 
and  the  constitution  of  their  country  in  the  other — looked 
calmly  on  without  throwing  the  influence  of  his  name  and  his 
fame  publicly  in  favor  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  and  the  rights 
of  the  south  under  it.  Thus  it  was,  that  previous  to  his  nomina- 
tion, Gen.  Scott  had  drawn  the  abolitionists  to  him  by  trip- 
pie  cords — cords  of  sympathy  and  gratitude. 

How  has  he  patronized  and  encouraged  them  since  ?  In 
his  letter  to  Mr.  Archer  (the  breeches  pocket  letter  of  Mr. 
Botts,)  he  said,  "  In  my  letter  of  acceptance  I  shall  give  my 
views  on  the  compromise  in  terms  at  least  as  strong  as  those  I 
read  to  you  the  other  day."  According  to  Gov.  Jones'  account 
he  said  he  would  express  his  approbation  of  the  measures  of 
the  compromise  or  die.  Well,  all  this  is  flourishing  boldly 
enough.  But  did  he  come  out  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  at 
all?  In  any  terms,  strong  or  weak?  Did  he  utter  one  word 
for  or  against  the  compromise  ?  Not  one,  not  one  !  He  sim- 
ply said,  "  I  accept  the  nomination  with  the  resolutions  annex- 
ed." Gen.  Pierce  said,  "I  accept  the  nomination  upon  the 
platform  adopted  by  the  convention,  because  the  principles  it 
embraces  command  the  approbation  of  my  judgment,  and  with 
which  there  has  been  no  word  or  act  of  my  life  in  conflict." 


264  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

Now,  why  did  not  Gen.  Scott  say  something  like  that?  For- 
getting his  letter  to  Archer  and  his  declaration  or  promise  to 
Jones,  he  sends  in  a  cold  and  non-committal  acceptance  "with 
the  resolutions  annexed." 

And  what  sort  of  a  platform,  I  pray  you,  did  their  resolu- 
tions make  ?  Not  that  one  which  Fillmore's  friends  had  pre- 
pared in  caucus — not  that  one  that  Webster's  friends  had 
solemnly  agreed  to ;  but  that  one  which  the  committee,  Gov. 
Johnston  being  one  of  its  members,  had  prepared  in  lieu  of  it, 
leaving  out  the  very  life  and  soul  of  the  document.  The  dem- 
ocratic platform  had  declared  against  the  agitation  of  any  and 
all  slavery  questions ;  so  had  Fillmore  and  Webster's.  But  the 
power  of  the  abolition  influence  emasculated  it  and  reported 
simply  declaring  that  the  specific  questions  settled  by  the  com- 
promise should  be  acquiesced  in  :  thus  leaving  all  others,  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  forts,  arsenals  and  other  public  es^ 
tablishments  of  the  United  States  and  the  transportation  of 
slaves  from  one  State  to  another,  still  to  be  agitated  both  in 
and  out  of  Congress.  Thus  is  sustained  one  of  my  proposi- 
tion that  they  have  dictated  a  creed  to  the  whig  party.  What 
further  assurances  has  he  been  pleased  to  give  them  since  his 
nomination  ?  The  letter  of  Senator  Wade,  as  yet  uncontra- 
dicted, informs  us  "that  he  had  just  had  a  conversation  with 
Gen.  Scott  (in  July)  in  which  he  declared  that  he  would  sooner 
cut  off  his  right  hand  than  lend  it  to  the  support  of  slavery. 
What !  not  lend  your  right  arm  to  support  it  when  the  constitu- 
tion declares  you  shall  do  it  ?  Not  lend  your  right  arm  to  sup- 
port it  when  a  dominant  majority  shall  attempt  to  cleave  it 
down  by  repealing  the  fugitive  slave  law  :  or  when  they  shall 
pass  a  law  to  discharge  on  habeas  corpus,  in  the  most  summary 
manner,  any  slave  in  this  country  ?  Would  Gen.  Scott  not 
deign  to  stretch  forth  his  right  hand  and  by  seizing  hold  on  the 
veto  power,  save  the  constitution  from  violation  and  the  rights 
of  the  south  from  destruction  ?  No  he  would  not.  He  need 
not  have  so  declared  to  Senator  Wade.  I  care  not  whether  he 
ever  spoke  to  that  Senator  or  not.  Long  ago  he  proclaimed 
the  doctrine,  that  there  ought  to  be  no  veto  arresting  the  law 
when  it  passed  a  second  time  by  a  majority.  Who  ever  heard 
of  such  a  veto  as  that  ?     W^hy  boys  ought  to  know  that  practi- 


ON  ;THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  2G5 

cally  it  was  no  veto  at  all.  That  letter  is  enough  to  show  the 
south  her  certain  doom,  if  Gen.  Scott  should  be  elected.  The 
north  has  a  majority  now  of  more  than  forty  votes — a  majority 
that  is  rapidly  augmented  by  every  apportionment.  Under 
this  doctrine  nothing  is  left  to  stay  the  march  of  abolitionists 
and  freesoilers  to  universal  domination.  This  is  not  only  the 
doctrine  of  Gen.  Scott,  but  of  his  friends  who  support  him  in 
this  State.  Gov.  Jones  in  one  of  his  published  speeches  goes 
for  the  abolition  of  the  veto  power  altogether,  whilst  General 
Haskell  is  reported  in  the  New  York  Herald  in  one  of  his  Tay- 
lor speeches  as  saying  that  "  although  a  slaveholder,  if  Zachary 
Taylor  pledged  himself  to  veto  the  Wilmot  proviso,  he  (Has- 
kell) would  desert  his  standard." 

Here  let  every  southern  State  and  every  slaveholder  in  this 
country  come  to  a  dead  pause  for  a  few  moments.  Let  us  look 
around  us  and  understand  our  condition.  The  opinion  of  for- 
eign countries  is  pressing  hard  upon  us.  The  opinion  of  half 
the  States  here  at  home,  is  pressing  hard  upon  us — a  dead 
majority  of  at  least  forty  in  Congress  is  against  us.  Now  what 
safety  or  hope  of  safety  have  we,  but  in  the  Presidential  veto  ? 
If  that  be  denied  to  us  our  property,  the  property  of  whigs  as 
well  as  democrats,  must  be  swept  from  us.  Gen.  Scott  maintains 
that  there  should  be  no  veto  against  a  final  majority.  Gov. 
Jones  says  it  ought  to  be  obliterated  altogether.  Gen.  Haskell 
would  not  have  it  exercised  to  save  us  from  the  Wilmot  proviso, 
and  of  course  not  to  prevent  a  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law. 
Thus  we  are  left  naked,  and  exposed  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
with  no  shelter  to  fly  to,  no  arm  to  save  us,  and  General  Scott 
boldly  telling  us  that  he  would  cut  off  his  arm  before  he  would 
extend  it  for  our  relief ! 

It  is  vain  to  tell  me  that  Gen.  Scott  has  since  his  nomination 
declared  his  hearty  approval  of  the  compromise  measures  to 
many  private  individuals.  Nobody  wants  private  testimonials 
on  vital  questions  like  these.  He  may  have  too  many  breeches 
pocket  letters,  too  many  private  conversations  like  the  one 
with  Senator  Wade.  These  private  conversations  are  too  well 
calculated  to  make  him  "  all  things  to  all  men."  No,  we  want- 
ed public  committals,  public  declarations,  that  would  have 
driven  bad  and  dangerous  men  away  from  your  convention, 


266  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

and  have  relieved  the  South  from  all  danger  and  apprehension 
as  to  the  candidate  of  either  party. 

Nor  will  it  do  to  say  that  silence  before  the  election  or  a  little 
equivocation  since  is  only  a  matter  of  policy  in  the  election,  and 
that  when  he  is  elected  he  will  rise  superior  to  all  malign  influ- 
ences. If  he  be  a  man  he  cannot ;  if  an  honest  man  he  will 
not.  When  abolitionists  shall  come  to  him  at  the  moment  when 
he  may  be  forming  his  cabinet,  and  demand  high  places  under 
his  administration,  how  can  he,  how  ought  he  to  refuse  them  ? 
They  will  say,  without  us  you  could  not  have  gotten  the  nomin- 
ation. Gen.  Scott  must  reply,  I  know  it.  They  will  further 
say,  without  us  you  could  not  have  been  elected ;  he  must  re- 
ply, I  know  it.  We  have  therefore  breathed  into  your  nostrils 
the  very  breath  of  your  life.  Without  us  you  were  nothing, 
but  with  us  you  have  become  the  President.  You  cannot  post- 
pone our  demands  in  favor  of  the  democrats,  for  you  have 
made  a  clean  sweep  of  them  ;  nor  in  favor  of  Millard  Fill- 
more, for  you  remember  his  letter  to  the  convention  to  go  for 
Webster,  and  save  the  whig  party  ;  nor  in  favor  of  Webster, 
for  between  you  and  him,  as  between  Lazarus  and  Dives,  there 
is  an  impassable  gulf.  We,  therefore,  demand  it  of  you,  that 
you  advance  us  high  in  patronage  and  favor.  Can  Gen.  Scott 
refuse  them?  Mr.  Gentry  says  he  will  not.  Christopher  H. 
Williams  says  he  will  not.  Stephens,  Toomb3  and  Cabell,  and 
a  long  list  of  the  best  and  truest  members  of  the  whig  party, 
all  say,  that  with  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Scott,  the  reign  of 
the  whig  party  will  end,  and  that  of  Wm.  H.  Seward  and 
Horace  Greeley  will  begin. 

But  I  must  pass  away  from  this  branch  of  the  subject.  I  have 
lingered  long  enough  around  the  poisoned  fountain  of  this 
nomination.  I  assume  another  ground,  equally  as  fatal  to  the 
election  of  Gen.  Scott.  He  is  not  qualified  for  the  exalted  sta- 
tion. He  has  been  a  soldier  by  profession  all  his  life  ;  a  bril- 
liant and  successful  one  ;  but  he  has  no  experience  in  civil  af- 
fairs. What  does  he  know  from  study  and  reflection  about 
the  constitution,  laws  and  treaties,  of  this  country?  Where 
has  he  ever  exhibited  the  slightest  attainments  in  jurisprudence 
and  civil  government  ?  His  friends  and  electors  have  been 
asked  the  question  more  than  an  hundred  times.      What  do 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  267 

they  answer?  Why,  that  he  has  written  a  book.  Aye,  but 
what  was  it  about  ?  Military  tactics  !  But  he  was  sent  to 
Europe.  Aye,  but  what  was  his  errand  ?  To  inspect  military 
fortifications  !  But  he  was  ordered  to  Charleston  by  General 
Jackson,  charged  with  delicate  and  important  duties.  Aye, 
but  he  was  to  take  no  step  except  what  related  to  the  immedi- 
ate defence  of  the  port,  without  the  order  of  the  collector  or 
District  Attorney  !  So  on  the  Maine  boundary — so  every 
where.  He  has  never  been  employed  or  acquitted  himself  in 
any  civil  capacity  in  all  his  life,  without  having  somebody  to 
overlook  and  restrain  him. 

But  I  am  not  content  to  overturn  the  vain  pretences  of  his 
advocates.  I  carry  the  war  into  their  own  camp,  and  here  to- 
day undertake  to  show  affirmitively,  that  he  has  no  qualifica- 
tions for  civil  affairs.  He  has  made  his  own  political  record. 
He  has  made  it  by  his  letters  and  addresses.  He  belonged  to 
the  army,  and  might  have  said  nothing.  But,  being  vain  and 
ambitious,  he  sought  notoriety  by  throwing  himself  through  his 
letters  before  the  public  eye  in  moments  of  high  political  ex- 
citement. In  what  one  of  these  did  he  not  commit  some  great 
blunder,  injurious  to  his  own  fame  and  mortifying  to  his  friends? 
Take  for  example  his  letter  on  Naturalization  in  1841  :  He 
says  he  was  fired  with  indignation  against  foreigners,  and  sat 
down  and  prepared  an  address  with  the  view  of  rallying  an 
American  party  against  them.  That  he  fully  concurred  in  the 
Philadelphia  move  against  foreigners,  and  was  inclined  to  re- 
peal the  Naturalization  laws  altogether,  and  shut  them  out 
forever  from  the  enjoyment  of  our  free  institutions.  Who 
want3  to  vote  for  him  for  that  letter?  Its  folly  was  so  great 
that  he  has  been  half  denying  and  apologizing  for  it  ever  since! 
Take  now  another  case.  He  came  out  in  great  flourish  in  fa- 
vor of  the  celebrated  bankrupt  bill.  But  before  the  General 
could  get  much  attention  drawn  to  his  letter,  the  measure  had 
become  odious,  and  down  went  the  bankrupt  bill  and  General 
Scott's  letter  together !  Let  us  have  another  letter.  In  1843, 
when  the  great  minds  of  America  were  discussing  the  question 
about  slavery  under  the  constitution,  he  again  thursts  for- 
ward his  opinions,  and  declares  in  favor  of  the  power  of 
Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia — that 


268  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

Congress  ought  to  receive,  refer  and  report  on  abolition  peti- 
tions !  Let  us  have  another  one  of  his  letters.  At  a  period 
when  his  whole  party  was  clamoring  for  a  curtailment  of  exec- 
utive power  and  patronage,  General  Scott  comes  to  the  grave 
and  profound  conclusion,  that  they  are  all  wrong,  that  the  Pres- 
ident was  not  far  enough  removed  from  the  people — that  he 
ought  to  be  released  from  such  vulgar  liabilities,  and  therefore 
should  be  elected  for  six  years,  rather  than  for  four.  There  is 
another  egregious  folly  in  General  Scott's  civil  career,  which  I 
am  sure  you  must  have  anticipated,  I  mean  hi3  annexation  of 
Canada,  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia.  Territory  large 
enough  for  thirty  or  forty  new  States,  composed  of  many  mil- 
lions of  French  and  English  population,  monarchists  and  abo- 
litionists, to  crush  and  grind  us  and  our  property  to  powder ! 
Horror  struck  at  the  idea  of  annexing  Texas,  that  did  not  hold 
one  thousand  persons  in  it,  except  our  countrymen  and  kindred, 
accustomed  to  our  laws,  and  attached  to  our  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  but  yet  willing  to  bring  in  Canada,  crowded  with  a 
population  that  hated  all  republics,  and  scorned  our  free  in- 
stitutions ! 

Here  then,  is  a  full  map  of  Gen.  Scott's  attempts  to  connect 
himself  with  the  civil  policy  of  the  country.  It  is  constructed 
out  of  his  own  materials : 

1st.  His  Naturalization  letter,  in  which  he  lays  the  founda- 
tion for  that  native  American  party,  from  which  has  emanated 
all  the  persecutions  against  foreigners  ever  since. 

2d.  His  letter  in  favor  of  the  now  universally  condemned 
bankrupt  bill. 

3rd.  His  letter  sustaining  John  Quincy  Adams  in  bringing 
the  subject  of  abolition  into  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States. 

4th.  His  letter  maintaining  that  although  Congress  could 
not  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States,  she  could  abolish  it  in 
the  District  .of  Columbia. 

5th.  His  letter  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Canada,  New 
Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia. 

6th.     His  letter  making  our  government  more  aristocratic, 
by  electing  the  President  for  six  instead  of  four  years. 
V^  This  map  is  complete.      It  delineates  every  attempt,  six  in 


ON  THE   PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  269 

all,  to  connect  himself  at  any  time  with  the  civil  policy  of  hi3 
country.  Every  one  of  them  was  a  blunder,  a  failure,  an  abor- 
tion. Taken  one  by  one,  we  must  disapprove  and  condemn 
them :  taken  altogether,  they  force  us  to  the  conclusion,  that 
he  is  not  qualified  for  so  high  an  office.  The  country  is  full  to 
overflowing  of  men  a  thousand  times  better  qualified.  Every 
average  county  and  city  in  the  Union  could  furnish  a  candidate 
with  higher  civil  qualifications. 

There  is  no  uncharitableness  in  this  expression  of  opinion. 
The  chief  men  of  the  whig  synagogue  have  gone  before  me. 
Horace  Greeley,  who  next  to  Seward,  is  his  ablest  supporter,  is 
reported  to  have  said,  "  that  Gen.  Scott  is  a  vain,  conceited 
coxcomb  of  a  man.  His  brains  (all  that  he  has)  are  in  his 
epaulettes,  and  if  he  should  be  elected  President,  he  would  tear 
the  whig  party  to  tatters  in  less  than  six  months."  A  distin- 
guished leader  in  East  Tennessee  does  not  hesitate  to  proclaim, 
"  that  he  has  vanity  enough  to  damn  seven  successive  whig  ad- 
ministrations." Gen.  Zollicoffer,  of  the  Republican  Banner, 
who  was  one  of  the  three  whig  delegates  who  deserted  from  Fill- 
more, and  went  over  to  Scott,  said,  wrote  and  published  of  and 
concerning  the  aforesaid  Winfield  Scott,  that  he  had  no  high 
opinion  of  his  "  very  sound  discretion  or  common  sense."  "What ! 
destitute  of  common  sense  ?  If  so,  no  other  sort  of  sense  will 
be  of  any  avail.  Without  common  sense  as  the  great  basis  of 
human  intellect,  all  else  is  useless  and  even  dangerous.  The 
maniac  may  have  every  other  sort  but  common  sense,  and  your 
mere  man  of  genius  and  imagination  may  be  utterly  useless 
for  all  the  practical  purposes  of  human  life.  No  confidence 
in  his  common  sense  ! — vanity  enough  to  damn  seven  succes- 
sive whig  administrations  I — all  his  brains  in  his  epaulettes,  and 
in  six  months  he  would  tear  the  whig  party  to  tatters !  Well,  if 
these  are  the  opinions  of  the  great  high  priests  of  the  Scott 
party,  I  know  you  will  pardon  me  for  simply  maintaining  that 
he  is  not  qualified  to  fill  the  exalted  office  and  to  perform  the 
complicated  and  arduous  duties  of  President  of  the  United 
States. 

But  I  carry  this  question  of  qualification  far  beyond  his 
want  of  political  knowledge  and  experience  in  civil  affairs.  I 
maintain  that  his  education,  temper  and  disposition,  disqualify 


270  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

him  altogether  to  fill  the  office.  His  education  has  been  mili- 
tary ;  he  has  been  in  the  regular  army  from  his  youth  up.  Mili- 
tary life  has  been  with  him  a  trade — a  calling — the  main,  and 
in  fact  his  only  pursuit  in  life.  The  result  is  that  he  is  proud  and 
dictatorial.  Impatient  under  opposition,  he  is  ready  to  resolve 
every  thing  into  a  quarrel.  Hence  it  is  that  his  whole  life  has 
been  made  up  of  quarrels  and  complaints,  with  any  body  and 
against  every  body.  In  early  life  he  quarrelled  with  Macomb 
about  priority  of  rank.  He  quarrelled  with  the  then  adminis- 
tration, and  could  not  be  quieted  but  by  the  severest  reprimand. 
He  quarrelled  with  General  Gaines,  and  never  ceased  his  en- 
mity until  the  grave  closed  over  the  remains  of  that  gallant 
old  soldier.  He  quarrelled  with  General  Jackson,  and  refused 
to  say,  with  the  frankness  of  a  soldier,  whether  he  was  the 
author  of  certain  slanders  against  him.  He  quarrelled  with 
De  Witt  Clinton  in  the  same  case,  and  invited  him  to  mortal 
combat  when  he  knew  his  oath  of  office  forbade  its  acceptance, 
and  when  he  had  declined  to  invite  Gen.  Jackson  to  the  same 
wager  of  battle  for  a  much  greater  offence.  In  the  Florida  war 
he  quarrelled  with  the  people  of  that  territory,  and  denounced 
them,  according  to  our  recollection,  in  his  order  No.  48,  as  cow- 
ards and  afraid  of  an  Indian  behind  every  bush.  In  the  Mexi- 
can war,  his  whole  career  was  marked  with  fuss,  quarrels  and 
feathers. 

He  quarrelled  with  Polk  for  not  sending  him  to  Mexico,  and 
when  he  did  send  him,  he  quarrelled  with  him  for  that.  He 
quarrelled  with  Marcy  for  not  sustaining  him  in  the  Quarter 
Master's  Department,  when  he  had  the  Quarter  Master  Gen- 
eral with  him  at  New  Orleans  and  Vera  Cruz  with  unlimited 
authority  to  do  anything  and  everything  he  might  stand  in  need 
of.  He  quarrelled  with  the  President  for  recalling  him  from 
Mexico  when  it  was  done  at  his  own  written  request.  He 
quarrelled  with  the  Secretary  for  not  allowing  him  to  make  pro- 
motions of  his  friends  in  the  army  over  equally  meritorious 
officers,  contrary  to  the  express  provisions  of  the  army  regu- 
lations. He  quarrelled  with  and  tried  to  disgrace  Col.  Harney, 
"  the  bravest  of  the  brave,"  for  no  reason  under  the  sun,  ex- 
cept that  he  did  not  like  him.  He  quarrelled  with  Generals 
Worth  and  Duncan,  as  gallant  and  fine  officers  as  ever  drew 


ON   THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  271 

the  breath  of  life.  I  say  nothing  of  Gen.  Pillow's  case.  He 
is  my  kinsman  and  I  pass  that  over  altogether.  But  speaking 
of  all  the  others,  I  boldly  say  that  he  exhibited  an  overbearing 
and  tyrannical  temper  that  totally  unfits  him  for  high  command 
in  civil  life. 

But  he  was  not  content  merely  to  quarrel  with  them — "to 
show  a  hasty  spark  and  then  be  cold  again."  No,  he  arrest- 
ed them,  strip t  them  of  their  command — took  away  their 
swords,  hacked  and  battered  in  many  a  hard  battle,  that  he 
might  wear  the  crown  of  laurels  on  his  own  brow.  He  did  every 
thing  to  disgrace  them  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  Take  the 
case  of  Gen.  Worth  as  a  sample  of  the  rest.  How  often  had 
he  headed  his  division  and  charged  in  the  midst  of  carnage  and 
death  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth  to  win  a  battle,  whilst  General 
Scott  was  afar  off  in  perfect  safety,  looking  through  his  spy 
glass,  and  afterwards  wearing  the  laurels  of  a  victory  which 
Worth  had  won  for  him  at  the  risk  of  his  life  !  And  yet,  after 
all  this,  he  hears  read  and  permits  to  be  transmitted  to  the 
United  States  for  publication,  the  highest  praises  of  himself 
and  the  grossest  charges  against  Gen.  Worth,  which  he  him- 
self was  afterwards  compelled  to  abandon.  The  case  of  Dun- 
can, the  brave  and  accomplished  Duncan,  is  another,  which 
might  be  adduced  for  the  same  illustration  of  Gen.  Scott's 
overbearing  character.  Arrested  and  unsworded,  all  they 
could  do  was  to  appeal  to  their  own  government  for  justice. 
They  asked  a  court  of  inquiry  to  investigate  the  whole  case, 
and  when  this  obvious  justice  was  awarded  them,  Gen.  Scott 
even  quarrelled  with  the  government  for  that.  He  complained 
that  he,  the  accuser,  should  have  to  go  before  the  same  tribunal 
with  the  other  officers  of  his  command.  I  pray  you  hear  the 
reply  of  Secretary  Marcy  to  this  strange,  this  proud  and  aristo- 
cratic complaint : 

"  On  what  ground  of  right  can  you  claim  to  have  your  case 
discriminated  from  theirs  ?  It  is  true  that  you  have  assumed 
to  be  their  judge  and  have  pronounced  them  guilty  ;  and  you 
complain  and  repine  that  the  laws  of  the  country  do  not  allow 
you,  their  accuser,  to  institute  a  tribunal  to  register  your  de- 
cree. But  you  are  not  their  rightful  judge,  although  they  were 
your  prisoners.  Before  that  court  all  stand  on  the  same  level 
19 


272  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

and  all  have  equal  rights.  Though  you  may  have  the  self  sat- 
isfying conviction  that  you  are  innocent,  and  they  are  guility, 
the  government  could  act  on  no  such  presumption.  By  be- 
coming the  accuser  you  did  not  place  yourself  out  of  the  reach 
of  being  accused ;  and  unless  you  are  clothed  with  the  im- 
munity of  despotic  power,  and  can  claim  the  benefit  of  the 
maxim  "  that  the  king  can  do  no  wrong,"  I  know  not  why 
your  conduct,  when  made  the  subject  of  charge,  may  not  be 
investigated  by  a  court  of  enquiry.  *  *  *  If  your 
extraordinary  pretensions  are  to  derive  any  support  from  your 
distinguished  services,  you  ought  to  be  mindful  that  the  three 
accused  officers  put  under  arrest  by  you  have  like  claims  for 
distinguished  services.  On  the  pages  of  impartial  history  their 
names  and  gallant  deeds  must  appear  with  yours,  and  no 
monopolizing  claims,  nor  malignant  exclusions  will  be  permit- 
ted to  rob  them  of  their  fair  share  of  the  glory  won  by  our  gal- 
lant army,  whilst  under  your  command."  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  this  known  incompetency  in  civil  affairs,  and 
his  total  disqualification  in  temper  and  disposition  that  prompt- 
ed Mr.  Fillmore,  when  asked  by  his  friends  in  the  midst  of  the 
ballotting  what  they  should  do,  to  reply,  "  go  for  Mr.  Webster 
and  save  the  whig  party" — that  induced  Mr.  Clay  on  his  dying 
bed  to  advise  his  son  when  he  should,  be  dead  and  gone,  not 
to  vote  for  Gen.  Scott. 

But  I  leave  the  chapter  of  his  quarrels  with  every  body  and 
about  everything.  With  such  a  man  for  your  President  what 
could  be  expected  but  the  blowing  up  of  cabinets— arrests  and 
court  martials  by  land  and  by  sea — recalls  of  foreign  embas- 
sadors— quarrels  and  ruptures  with  foreign  governments  and 
the  d — 1  to  pay  generally  ! 

I  now  turn  to  a  more  pleasing  and  gratifying  duty,  the  vin- 
dication of  the  democratic  party — its  policy — its  creed  and 
its  candidate.  Its  policy  adorns  every  page  of  American  his- 
tory. Its  triumphs  have  emblazoned  your  flag  in  every  land 
and  on  every  sea.  It  has  carried  your  name  and  fame  to  every 
part  of  the  habitable  globe.  Kings  have  beheld  it  and  trem- 
bled. Nations  have  gazed  upon  it  and  rejoiced.  But  I  speak 
of  it  now  in  its  more  restricted  sense  as  now  being  practised 
and  carried  out  on  the  recent  questions  of  party  controversy. 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  273 

At  this  very  moment  the  whig  party  is  paying  a  profound  hom- 
age to  every  one  of  those  disputed  subjects.  They  are  carry- 
ing out  in  full  practice  every  measure  which  democracy  has 
established  ;  making  no  effort  and  hardly  entertaining  a  wish 
to  defeat  or  disturb  them.  They  administer  the  government 
without  a  National  Bank.  They  cellect  their  own  revenues  by 
their  own  officers  and  we  hear  nothing  of  those  anticipated 
evils  of  the  sub-treasury,  which  were  so  confidently  predicted. 
The  tariff  of  1846  is  pouring  into  our  coffers  the  most  ample 
supplies,  and  but  slight  and  occasional  wishes  are  expressed 
in  favor  of  its  alteration.  The  vast  accessions  to  our  terri- 
tory are  giving  new  impulses  and  directions  to  commerce,  and 
our  people  are  building  up  magnificent  cities  on  the  shore  of 
the  Pacific. 

In  relation  to  our  creed  as  recently  set  forth  in  our  conven- 
tion, it  has  extorted  from  our  enemies  their  loftiest  eulogiums 
and  silenced  the  cavils  of  the  most  reckless  partisans.  On  the 
all  absorbing  topic  of  the  present  canvass  it  proclaims  the 
most  faithful  adherence  to  the  compromise  in  general,  and  in- 
sists on  the  most  rigid  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  bill  in 
particular.  In  other  words,  the  democratic  party  of  the 
United  States,  amid  the  dangers  of  the  present  conflict,  stand 
immoveably  on  the  Constitution ;  calm,  firm,  and  erect,  hold- 
ing that  sacred  instrument  in  the  one  hand  and  the  farewell 
address  of  the  sainted  Washington  in  the  other.  There  she 
stands,  and  come  what  may,  there  she  will  stand,  with  undy- 
ing devotion  to  liberty,  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  In 
taking  this  noble  stand  I  am  proud  to  know  and  to  aver,  that 
the  democracy  of  Tennessee  stood  out  in  advance  of  all  others. 
We  were  the  first  to  assemble^ 'after  the  passage  of  the  com- 
promise.  We  assembled  in  the  southern  convention.  We 
dissented  from  that  body  on  several  points,  and  to  show  our 
exact  opinions,  we  presented  what  was  called  the  Tennessee 
platform.  It  was  the  first  Union  platform  ever  erected  in 
America.  Georgia  followed  our  example.  Then  Mississippi 
and  several  other  States.  In  several  instances  they  almost 
copied  our  very  words  on  all  the  exact  sentiments  we  had 
adopted.  What  were  those  sentiments  ?  That  although  the 
compromise  did  not  award  to  us  all  that  in  our  opinion  we 


274  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

were  entitled  to,   yet  we  would  abide  by   it  with  that  fidelity 
and  honor  which  had  always  distinguished  the  south.     We 
went  one  step  farther.     We  declared  that  the  north  must  also 
abide  by  it,  and  substantially  that  we  would  not  submit  to  the 
repeal  of  the   fugitive   slave  bill.     This  last,  the  whig  party 
toould  not  say.     The  whigs  of  the  adjoining  States  would  say 
it,   and  did  say  it,  but    the  whigs  of  Tennessee  would  not 
say    it.      For   saying  in    our    platform  that  we  would   not 
submit  to  the  repeal,  they   accused  us    of   being    too    ultra 
and  affiliating  too  much    with    the  fire   eaters  of  the  south, 
as     they  were    tauntingly  called.     We  replied,   that  if  we 
are    too    ultra    for  our    rights,   you   are  too   ultra    against 
them,  and   we  pointed  them   day   after   day  to    their    own 
brethren   of  Georgia — of  Alabama    and   Mississippi,  below 
whose  platform   they   had   immeasurably    fallen.      The   re- 
tort was  too  powerful  and  the  reference  too  obvious.     It  drove 
them  to  the  wall.     Gen.  ZollicofFer,  who  wrote  the  first  plat- 
form, resolved  to  amend  and  enlarge  it  in  the  midst  of  the  can- 
vass.    On  the  ever  memorable  Monday  the  23d  day  of  June, 
1851,  the  Republican   Banner    (the    flag-ship  of  the   party) 
came  out  with  the  declaration,  extorted  from  him  by  the  pres- 
sure of  the  canvass,  "  that  if  the  fugitive  slave  bill  should  be 
repealed,  thus  annulling  the  Constitution,  resistance  should  fol- 
low by  the  whole  south  united."     This   placed,  for  the  first 
time,  both  parties  on  the  same  platform  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tions.    Now,  did  they  come  to  us,  or  did  we  go  to  them  ?    Let 
incontrovertable  facts,  dates  and  figures  answer  the  question. 
We   constructed  our  platform  in  November,  1850.    We  re- 
affirmed it  in  February,  1851,  and  Gen.  ZollicofFer  put  himself  on 
it  and  dragged  his  party  after  him  not  until  the  June  following. 
And  yet  an  impudence  so  unblushing  is  not  wanting  to  ask 
whence  this  new  born  zeal  for  the  compromise,  and  for  the  fugi- 
tive slave  bill  in  particular  ?     After  having  furnished  the  facts 
and  dates,  I  waste  no  further  time  in  answering  a  question 
founded  on  a  perversion  of  facts  so  wilful,  or  an  ignorance  of 
them  so  profound.     But  the  question  is  sometimes  asked  in  re- 
lation to  another  speech,  which  I  will  answer.     It  is   asked 
whence  my  new  born  zeal  for  the  fugitive  slave  bill  ?    My  an- 
swer is  that  my  zeal  is  as  old  as  the  Tennessee  platform,  and  I 


ON  THE   PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  275 

have  just  shown  that  that  is  the  oldest  upon  record — older  than 
that  of  any  whig  creed  by  many  months.  That  I  was  the  very 
author  of  the  first  declaration  written  out  officially  after  the 
compromise  was  passed,  that  the  fugitive  slave  bill  must  be 
preserved.  But  how  is  this,  say  the  whig  orators,  did  you  not 
refuse  in  your  convention  speech  to  rejoice  at  the  passage  of 
the  compromise  ?  Did  you  not  say  that  your  heart  would 
sooner  break  than  rejoice?  And  has  dullness  become  so  pro- 
found, as  not  to  understand,  how  an  unwillingness  to  rejoice 
over  the  compromise  is  compatible  with  a  fixed  determination 
to  abide  by  and  maintain  it?  Did  the  whigs  rejoice  ?  Did 
any  body  rejoice  in  the  south  ?  None  except  a  very  few  at 
the  first  arrival  of  the  news,  and  whose  rejoicings  instantly 
ceased  when  they  learned  from  every  letter  and  every  circu- 
lar, that  came  from  whigs  and  democrats,  as  well  as  from  the 
acts  of  Congress  themselves,  that  the  compromise  had  been 
passed,  not  because  it  gave  us  all  that  the  south  was  entitled 
to,  but  because  it  was  the  best  that  they  could  obtain  for  us. 
Among  others  the  eloquent  voice  of  Mr.  Clay  came  booming 
to  his  countrymen  that  the  south  had  lost  all — every  thing,  but 
the  fugitive  slave  bill  and  her  honor.  All  else  was  lost.  After 
that,  no  man  of  sense  of  any  party  in  Tennessee  thought  of 
rejoicing  over  it.  All  men  and  all  parties  here  determined  to 
acquiesce  and  abide  by  it,  but  none  had  the  heart  (who  had  a 
heart)  to  rejoice  over  that  poor  remnant  of  rights  which  Mr, 
Clay  informed  us  had  alone  been  preserved.  Does  the  farmer 
go  home  rejoicing,  when  he  has  lost  in  court  one  half  of  the 
lands  which  had  descended  to  him  from  his  ancestors  ?  Does 
the  soldier  rejoice  when  he  has  been  driven  and  routed  from 
half  the  field  of  battle  ?  No,  his  victory  must  be  full  orbed — 
the  enemy  must  have  been  captured  or  driven  from  the  field 
before  he  sings  the  Te  Deum  of  triumph  ! 

Sirs,  I  begin  to  take  some  pains  to  preserve  that  convention 
speech  and  some  others  I  have  made.  When  I  delivered 
them  I  had  not  the  vanity  to  suppose  there  was  much  in 
them,  but  now  that  they  have  become  the  text  book  of  so 
many  whig  orators,  I  begin  to  think  more  favorably  of 
them.     Their  men  of  genius  refer  to  them  to  break,  if  they 


276  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

can,  their  force  and  power  over  the  public  mind.  Their 
men  of  dullness  turn  to  them  to  whet  their  flagging  intel- 
lects, and  when  they  can  think  of  nothing  else  to  say, 
with  feeble  articulation  they  mutter  out  something  about 
Governor  Brown  !  Governor  Brown  !  Poor  fellows  !  I  can  give 
them  speeches,  but  I  cannot  furnish  them  with  brains  to 
understand  them.  Perhaps  in  after  times  their  children 
may  read  them  as  productions  which  their  fathers  had  not 
the  patriotism  to  approve  nor  the  intellect  to  refute. 

Sirs,  this  personal  vindication  of  myself  lies  in  exact  line 
with  the  objects  I  have  before  me.  The  platform  which  I 
drew  and  which  the  democracy  of  the  State  twice  sanctioned, 
has  been  accepted  and  adopted  by  the  democracy  of  the  na- 
tion. The  whig  party  of  the  south  and  the  Webster  portion 
of  the  north,  have  done  the  same  thing  in  noble  rivalry 
with  us  to  preserve  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  Re- 
member, I  am  speaking  of  that  platform  which  the  south- 
ern whigs,  the  friends  of  Fillmore  prepared,  not  that  life- 
less and  soulless  one  which  Governor  Johnston's  committee 
reported,  shutting  the  door  against  the  agitation  of  only 
one  half  of  the  slavery  questions,  whilst  they  throw  it  wide 
open  as  to  all  the  others.  Thus  fortified,  endorsed  and 
sustained  in  my  sentiments  and  opinions  on  the  fugitive 
slave  bill  by  the  democracy  of  the  State,  as  well  as  of  the 
nation,  and  by  the  southern  whigs  themselves,  in  the  pre- 
paration of  their  platform,  my  shield  is  impenetrable  to 
the  feeble  shaft  that  strikes  it  and  then  falls  harmless  at 
my  feet. 

Fellow-citizens,  my  duty  is  now  done  as  it  relates  to  the 
nomination  of  Gen.  Scott,  the  malign  influences  that  effected 
it,  his  incompetency  in  civil  affairs,  and  his  unfitness  in  temper 
and  disposition  to  fill  the  exalted  office.  The  more  pleasing 
one  remains  of  inviting  your  attention  to  the  claims  of  Gen. 
Franklin  Pierce  to  your  confidence  and  support.  He  is  descen- 
ded from  a  revolutionary  patriot  and  soldier,  whose  devotion 
to  liberty  was  attested  on  the  heights  of  Bunker's  Hill.  Edu- 
cated in  one  of  the  best  institutions  of  the  north,  he  entered 
the  world  ripe  in  his  scholarship.     Engaging  in  the  study  and 


ON  THE    PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  277 

then  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  he  soon  reached  an  eminence 
in  his  profession  which  no  mediocrity  of  talents  could  have  at- 
tained. Thrown  early  into  Congress,  he  rose  rapidly  to  dis- 
tinction as  one  of  the  most  talented  and  useful  supporters  of 
Gen.  Jackson's  administration.  Transferred  to  the  Senate,  he 
exhibited  all  those  high  powers  of  debate  that  made  him  the 
worthy  compeer  of  the  illustrious  men  who  then  composed 
that  body.  I  know  of  no  man  with  whom  so  justly  to  com- 
pare him  as  with  James  K.  Polk.  Not  much  differing  in  age, 
in  industry,  in  habits  of  study,  in  perseverance,  in  power  of 
debate,  in  ardent  devotion  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution, 
and  unflinching  determination  to  support  them,  the  resem- 
blance was  striking  and  imposing.  Gen.  Jackson,  great  in  his 
intuitive  knowledge  of  men,  foresaw  his  eminence.  Mr.  Cal- 
houn predicted  it,  and  Mr.  PoIk,  every  day  identified  with  him 
in  public  labors,  expressed  the  opinion  that  at  some  day  he 
would  be  President  of  the  United  States.  Gen.  Pierce,  how- 
ever, has  never  been  an  office-seeker,  and  has  done  nothing  to 
bring  about  the  realization  of  these  predictions.  He  volunta- 
rily resigned  the  office  of  Senator.  When  Mr.  Woodbury  was 
appointed  to  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  United  States,  the  ap- 
pointment was  tendered  to  him  to  fill  his  vacancy,  but  he  de- 
clined it.  He  declined  the  nomination  for  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  when  his  election  would  have  been  certain.  Pres- 
ident Polk  invited  him  into  his  cabinet  as  Attorney  General  of 
the  United  States,  which  he  also  declined,  writing  that  he  had 
resolved  never  to  accept  an  office  which  Would  separate  him 
from  his  family,  except  at  the  call  of  his  country  in  time  of 
war.  That  time  soon  arrived.  Like  his  father  before  him, 
he  was  ever  ready  to  make  battle  for  his  country.  He  volun- 
teered for  the  Mexican  service,  and  when  he  reported  himself 
to  the  President,  he  tendered  to  him  the  commission  of  Colonel, 
and  afterwards  promoted  him  to  that  of  Brigadier  General.  It 
is  not  my  purpose  to  recite  the  history  of  his  military  service  in 
Mexico.  In  his  march  from  Vera  Cruz  to  the  main  army  in 
the  interior,  in  the  battles  of  Contreras,  Churubusco,  Molino 
del  Rey  and  Chepultepec,  the  reports  of  Generals  Scott,  Pillow 
and  Worth,  bear  high  and  honorable  testimony  to  his  gallantry 


278  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

and  good  conduct.  Still  the  tongue  of  slander  and  detraction 
has  assailed  him.  The  poisoned  arrow  of  defamation  had  as 
well  be  directed  against  the  courage  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  as  against  that  of  Gen.  Pierce.  Stationed  on  the  sum- 
mit of  some  distant  hill,  with  his  spyglass  in  his  hand,  there 
was  no  danger  of  being  thrown  from  his  horse  whilst  charging 
the  enemy  over  the  craggy  and  dangerous  pedrigal.  Yet  no 
cormorant  appetite  for  slander  ever  charged  General  Scott 
with  cowardice  because  he  viewed  the  progress  of  the  battle 
from  positions  exempted  from  danger.  Not  so  with  General 
Pierce.  There  is  no  such  liberality  and  sense  of  justice  reserved 
for  him.  A  Field-Marshal  of  France  could  but  yesterday  be 
thrown  from  his  horse  and  be  instantly  killed — the  gallant 
Ridgely  could  share  the  same  fate — but  it  was  impossible  for 
the  horse  of  Gen.  Pierce  to  fall ;  or  if  he  fell,  it  was  impossible 
that  its  rider  should  have  been  much  injured ;  or  if  much  in- 
jured, it  is  incredible  that  he  should  the  next  day  have  fainted, 
in  the  heat  of  the  action,  from  the  severity  of  his  wounds  or 
bruises !  The  American  people  understand  too  well  the  mo- 
tives which  prompt  to  such  base  and  infamous  attacks  to  lend 
the  ear  of  credulity  to  the  foul  insinuation.  Gen.  Scott  himself 
stands  convicted  of  falsehood,  if  Gen.  Pierce  acted  not  the 
part  of  a  brave  and  gallant  soldier.  But  I  mean  to  lay  but  lit- 
tle stress  on  the  military  prowess  of  either.  Mere  military  at- 
tainments, unaccompanied  by  qualification  in  civil  affairs,  to 
me  furnish  no  passport  to  the  Presidency.  Gen.  Washington 
had  been  a  soldier,  but  with  him  it  had  never  been  a  trade,  a 
calling,  a  lifetime  pursuit,  as  it  has  been  with  General  Scott. 
With  Washington,  his  generalship  sunk  into  insignificance 
when  compared  with  his  solid,  massy,  practical  good  sense, 
and  his  disinterested  and  lofty  patriotism.  Gen.  Jackson  was 
a  citizen  soldier,  with  whom  arms  had  been  but  a  mere  incident 
of  his  life,  not  his  main  pursuit.  He  had  been  a  judge  of  our 
highest  court,  a  member  of  Congress  and  Senator,  exhibiting 
in  every  situation  civil  qualifications  of  the  highest  order.  So 
it  is  with  Gen.  Pierce.  We  refer  to  the  fact  of  his  having 
volunteered  in  the  services  of  his  country  and  to  his  gallantry 
and  good  conduct  in  it  only  to  evince  his  patriotism,  whilst  we 


t0N  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  279 

point  to  his  eminence  at  the  bar,  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  to  attest  his  high  and  undoubted 
civil  qualifications.  On  the  life  and  death  question  involved 
in  this  canvass,  every  day  is  developing  his  devotion  to  the 
Constitution,  and  to  our  rights  under  it,  which  must  endear  him 
forever  to  his  countrymen. 

Two  years  ago,  in  the  very  heat  of  the  battle,  when  blow 
after  blow,  and  crash  after  crash,  seemed  to  announce  the 
downfall  of  the  republic,  John  P.  Hale,  the  great  leader  of 
the  abolitionists,  proclaimed  in  a  public  speech  that  he  was 
ready  to  head  an  army  and  to  march  upon  the  south  to  put 
down  slavery.  What  did  Franklin  Pierce  say  to  that  ?  He 
sprung  forward  like  the  Numidian  tiger,  and  replied,  "You  shall 
first  march  over  my  dead  body ;  for  I  will  head  an  army  to  op- 
pose you !"  Noble  sentiment !  Heroic  declaration  I  Could 
old  Marion  or  Sumpter  have  beat  that?  Did  Gen.  Scott  ever 
make  for  you  such  a  speech  as  that  ?  Did  he  ever  exhibit 
such  a  sublime  devotion  to  us  and  to  the  Constitution  ?  No  ; 
for  at  that  very  moment,  he  was  being  nominated  by  every  abo- 
lition legislature,  and  his  name  flying  at  the  mast-head  of  every 
abolition  newspaper  at  the  north.  Fillmore  was  trying  hard 
to  breast  the  storm ;  Webster  was  putting  forth  all  his  mighty 
power;  Pierce  was  bearding  the  great  lion  of  the  tribe,  face  to 
face ;  but  Wlnfield  Scott  had  not  one  single  word  to  say  pub- 
licly in  your  behalf!  Nay,  worse  than  that,  he  threw  hi3 
sword,  his  war  plumes,  and  all  his  large  honors  in  the  scale 
against  you ! 

There  they  are  yet,  and  there  they  will  remain  until  this  tra- 
gedy shall  end.  And  end  it  must.  I  know  not  when  nor  how. 
But  when  I  see  so  many  of  my  countrymen  yet  fast  asleep  in 
the  arms  of  party — when  I  see  them  slumbering  on  the  brink 
of  ruin — when  a  threat  to  march  large  armies  down  upon  them 
to  take  away  nine  hundred  millions  of  their  property,  can 
rouse  them  up  to  no  preparation — when  they  hesitate  to  stand 
by  those  who  are  ready  to  throw  their  dead  bodies  between 
them  and  danger,  I  am  obliged  to  have  and  I  do  have  forebo- 
dings as  to  how  this  tragedy  is  to  end — that  it  must  end  as  the 
creed  of  abolition  declares,  in  vengeance,  revolution  and  death ! 


280  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Webster,  more  eloquent  and  appropri- 
ate than  any  which  I  can  utter,  "  If  that  catastrophe  shall 
happen  let  it  have  no  history.  Let  the  horrible  narrative  never 
be  written.  Let  its  fate  be  like  the  lost  book  of  Livy,  which 
no  human  eye  shall  ever  read.  Or  like  the  missing  Pleiad,  of 
which  no  man  can  ever  know  more,  than  that  it  is  lost  and  lost 
forever." 


• 


v 


SPEECH 

Of  Gov,  Aaron  V.  Brown,  at  the  Charleston  and  Calhoun 
Mass  Meeting,  taken  from  the  Knoxville  Plebeian,  of  October 
16M,  1852. 


Gov.  A.  V.  Brown  said:  In  the  present  canvass  the  whig 
party  had  no  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  We  deplore  the 
fact,  because  with  all  its  faults  and  all  its  errors,  it  is  a  thou- 
sand-fold better  than  that  dangerous  faction  which  had  lately 
outnumbered  them  in  convention,  superseded  their  favorite 
candidates,  and  set  up  one  of  their  own.  He  did  not  blame, 
he  did  not  reproach  them  for  not  having  a  candidate.  He  said 
he  knew  how  hard  they  tried  to  have  one — how  carefully  they 
appointed  their  delegates  to  the  convention,  and  how  cautious 
they  were,  in  most  cases,  to  guard  by  specific  instructions 
against  the  very  calamity  which  had  befallen  them. 

It  is  somewhere  said  in  the  Sacred  Writings,  continued  Gov. 
Brown,  that  when  the  saints  of  the  Lord  had  assembled  to- 
gether, Satan  also  appeared  amongst  them.  So  it  was  when 
the  whig  party  assembled  in  Baltimore ;  the  abolitionists 
of  the  north  also  appeared  in  their  midst,  and  boldly  de- 
manded the  nomination  of  their  candidate.  That  candidate 
was  Winfield  Scott.  The  whigs  proper  refused  to  accept  him. 
They  demanded  to  know  his  principles  by  public  avowal.  He 
refused  publicly  to  avow  them.  To  bring  his  whig  principles 
fully  and  finally  to  the  test,  the  whigs  presented  him  with  their 
platform  of  principles,  but  his  friends  rejected  it  with  scorn. 
They  spit  upon  it  and  trampled  it  beneath  their  feet.  There- 
upon, the  whigs  proper  of  the  convention  presented  Millard 


282  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

Fillmore  and  Daniel  Webster  as  their  candidates  in  opposition 
to  him. 

This,  said  he,  is  the  first  act  in  the  grand  drama.  He  then 
enquired  of  them  to  tell  him,  before  they  had  obscured  it 
by  any  other  consideration,  whose  candidate  was  Daniel 
Webster  ?  They  would  tell  him  he  was  the  candidate  of  the 
northern  whigs.  Why  ?  Because  they  brought  him  forward. 
Whose  candidate  was  Millard  Fillmore?  Of  the  southern 
whigs.  Why  ?  Because  they  brought  him  forward.  Whose 
candidate  was  General  Scott?  They  must  say,  of  the  abo- 
litionists. Why  ?  Because  they  brought  him  forward — would 
have  nobody  else — would  divide  on  nobody  else,  but  stood  in 
firm,  unbroken  column  for  him,  "first,  last,  and  all  the  time." 

He  then  proceeded  to  the  second  act  in  the  convention 
drama.  The  balloting  was  about  to  commence.  Look,  said 
he,  at  the  parties.  There  stood  Daniel  Webster,  surrounded 
by  only  twenty-nine  of  his  faithful  followers ;  all  the  rest  had 
been  swept  away  in  that  terrible  storm  of  fanaticism  which  has 
been  sweeping  over  the  States  of  the  north.  Close  by  his  side 
stood  Millard  Fillmore,  surrounded  by  the  whigs  of  the  south, 
whose  rights  and  property  they  considered  he  had  generously 
protected  until  every  northern  friend  had  fled  from  his  stand- 
ard. There  they  stood,  the  only  hope  and  the  only  candidates 
of  the  whig  party  proper,  either  north  or  south. 

But  who  were  they  standing  on  the  opposite  side,  in  marshal 
array  against  them  ?  The  black  flag  of  abolition  waving  over 
them  told  us  too  plainly  who  they  were.  They  were  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  principles  of  William  H.  Seward,  of  Horace 
Greeley,  and  Garrison,  and  of  Fred  Douglass.  They  were 
those  who  raised  great  mobs  in  the  cities  of  Boston  and  New 
York,  in  order  to  prevent  the  restoration  of  southern  property. 
They  were  those  whose  hands  were  yet  red  with  the  blood  of 
southern  men,  murdered  at  Christiana  in  open  day,  for  simply 
demanding  their  own  property  under  the  Constitution.  They 
were  those  who  openly  declare  in  this  canvass  that  the  fugitive 
slave  law  shall  be  repealed,  and  agitation  in  Congress  and  out 
of  Congress  shall  never  cease,  until  every  slave  in  America 
shall  be  taken  from  his  lawful  master.  In  the  midst  of  such 
social  incendiaries  as  these,  they  saw  the  tall  and  portly  form 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  283 

of  their  candidate,  Winfield  Scott ;  not  such  as  he  was  when 
proudly  standing  in  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas,  but  like  Lu- 
cifer, shorn  of  his  celestial  beauty,  standing  amid  the  fallen 
spirits  of  pandemonium. 

Such  were  the  candidates,  and  such  the  friends  who  brought 
them  forward  and  supported  them.  Day  after  day,  and  ballot 
after  ballot,  left  the  parties  at  the  close  of  the  week  where  they 
started  in  the  contest.  On  Monday  morning  the  convention 
again  assembled.  The  parties,  said  he,  resumed  their  posi- 
tions, and  preparations  began  for  the  last  final  struggle.  But 
hold  !  Nine  hundred  millions  of  southern  property — the  peace 
and  safety  of  every  southern  family  are  at  stake  !  Hold,  until 
they  ascertain  that  every  southern  man  is  at  his  post.  Call 
the  friends  of  Daniel  Webster.  They  were  there  in  true  and 
loyal  devotion  to  the  Constitution.  Call  the  friends  of  Millard 
Fillmore.  State  after  State,  said  he,  answered  "  Here  !"  At 
last  Tennessee  was  called.  Nine  out  of  twelve  champions  re- 
sponded, "  We  are  here  ready  for  the  charge."  But  where, 
he  asked,  were  the  other  three  ?  Call  them.  Gen.  Zollicoffer  ! 
Gen.  Zollicoffer  !  No  answer  comes.  Gov.  Jones  !  Gov.  Jones  ! 
No  response  was  given.  It  was  strange  !  It  looked  suspi- 
cious !  Yonder  they  were,  ranged  under  the  same  banner  with 
Seward  and  Greeley.  They  had  left  their  nine  comrades — 
they  had  deserted  Mr.  Fillmore — they  had  disobeyed  their  in- 
structions, and  all  was  lost !  One  ballot  more  told  the  sad 
story  that  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Fillmore,  the  only  whig  candi- 
dates before  the  convention,  were  defeated ;  and  the  long,  loud 
shout  of  the  abolitionists  proclaimed  that  their  candidate  was 
nominated. 

He  said,  their  candidate — he  was  nobody  else's  candi- 
date. For  fifty  ballots,  not  one  solitary  southern  whig,  now 
remembered,  voted  for  him.  All  were  from  the  north,  and 
from  those  States  most  violently  opposed  to  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  south. 

He  asked  them  to  tell  him  if  Gen.  Scott  was  brought  for- 
ward by  the  abolitionists,  and  for  fifty  ballottings  was  supported 
by  abolitionists  alone,  how  could  the  going  over  of  three  Ten- 
nesseeans  to  that  side  make  him  the  whig  candidate  ?  As  dele- 
gates, he  said,  they  had  no  right  to  desert  Mr.  Fillmore.     They 


284  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

were  under  special  instructions.  No  discretionary  powers  had 
been  given  them.  If  the  power  of  attorney  be  given  to  do  one 
thing  and  the  agent  do  another,  the  act  is  void  and  of  no  effect. 
To  do  the  thing  forbidden  is  a  fraud,  \Vhich,  in  every  civilized 
country,  would  set  aside  the  whole  transaction.  It  was  a  falsi- 
fication of  the  record  to  say  they  had  a  general  authority,  first 
to  go  for  Mr.  Fillmore,  and  if  they  could  not  get  him,  then  to 
go  for  somebody  else.  Go  read  the  proceedings  of  the  conven- 
tion, and  they  would  find  no  such  thing  intended.  Go  behind 
the  record,  and  they  would  find  the  whole  whig  press  of  the 
State  out  for  Fillmore,  "  first,  last,  and  all  the  time."  On  the 
29th  day  of  May,  the  Banner  proclaimed  that  "  if  Gen.  Scott 
does  not  write  and  publish  his  committal  to  the  finality  of  the 
compromise,,  we  cannot,  and  will  not  support  him,  though 
nominated  by  the  Whig  National  Convention  "  The  Banner 
would  not  be  content  with  anything  he  had  written  and  pub- 
lished before  that  time,  but  he  must  thereafter  come  out  and 
publish  some  committal  to  the  finality  of  the  ccmpromise. 
When  those  three  men  deserted  Mr.  Fillmore,  had  Gen.  Scott 
written  and  published  any  such  committal  ?  Gen.  Zollicoffer 
was  one  of  the  men  who  deserted  Fillmore,  and  now  he  would 
try  him  by  his  own  words.  On  Monday  morning:,  when  he  and 
Gov.  Jones,  and  one  other,  deserted  their  nine  comrades — when 
they  threw  down  their  instructions  and  went  over  and  took 
their  seats  by  the  side  of  the  immortal  sixty-six,  who  spit  upon 
the  platform,  had  Gen.  Scott  ever  written  and  published  any 
committal  to  the  finality  of  the  compromise  ?  It  was  a  grave 
question,  and  he  was  prepared  to  prove  that  he  had  not.  He 
would  call  no  democratic  witness — no  anti-Scott  witness.  No. 
He  would  call  to  the  stand  Scott's  file-leader  and  bosom  friend, 
Gov.  Jones.  He  had  proclaimed  it  to  the  world  "that  he  had 
tried  with  all  his  powers  of  persuasion  to  get  Gen.  Scott  to 
write  a  letter  to  the  convention  stating  his  position  on  political 
questions.  That  he  could  not  help  the  conviction  that  his 
nomination  depended  on  his  writing  such  a  letter.  But  he  had 
got  it  into  his  head  that  he  ought  not,  and  would  not  write  a 
letter,  and  did  not  write  one."  There  was  the  proof  positive, 
undeniable.  Zollicoffer  said,  "  if  he  will  not  write  and  publish 
one,  we  will  not  support  him."     Gov.  Jones  says   that  "  he 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  285 

would  not  and  did  not  write  one."  Yet  in  the  face  of  this 
solemn  pledge  to  his  brother  whigs  of  the  State — in  the  face  of 
this  positive  testimony  of  his  bosom  friend,  Gov.  Jones — in  the 
face  of  the  solemn  resolution  of  the  other  nine  delegates  never 
to  desert  the  standard  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  he  went  over  to  the 
support  of  Gen.  Scott !  There  was  no  escape  from  this  array 
of  proof.  It  fastened  down  upon  those  men  their  rank  and 
wilful  disobedience  to  the  whole  whig  sentiment  of  the  State, 
so  strong  and  so  undeniably,  that  nothing  could  save  them  but 
to  run  up  the  open  flag  of  rebellion  against  their  party  in  the 
State,  and  to  say,  "  Let  Gentry  do  as  he  please — let  Christo- 
pher H.  Williams  murmur  if  he  dare — let  Ephraim  H.  Foster, 
Francis  B.  Fog,  Dr.  McNairy,  Col.  Whiteside  and  all  the  rest, 
know  that  they  are  mere  atoms  in  the  party,  which  we  can 
blow  away  at  pleasure." 

And  such  indeed  is  the  expedient  which  these  bold  and  rash 
men  are  now  resorting  to  in  this  election.  The  whig  party  of 
the  State  met  and  instructed  their  men.  They  said  to  them, 
"  Go  in  our  name  and  bring  back  to  us  a  good  whig  candi- 
date fully  and  expressly  committed  to  the  faithful  execution  of 
the  fugitive  slave  bill.  Bring  Millard  Fillmore."  Well,  they 
went.  Did  they  bring  Millard  Fillmore?  No.  Did  they 
bring  any  body  publicly  committed  to  the  fugitive  slave  law  ? 
No.  Did  they  bring  them  a  whig  candidate  at  all  ?  No.  What, 
then,  had  they  done  ?  They  had  thrown  down  their  instructions . 
They  had  required  no  public  committal  that  nine  hundred 
millions  of  property  should  be  protected.  They  had  gone  over 
and  joined  their  worst  and  bitterest  enemies — enemies  to  us — 
enemies  to  our  property.  Enemies  who  hold  that  we  are  so 
vile,  degraded  and  dishonest,  that  they  will  not  admit  us  to 
any  social  or  moral'  equality  whatever.  In  short,  they  had 
formed  an  alliance  with  the  sixty-six  abolitionists,  who  spit 
upon  their  platform  of  principles.  And  now  they  had  come 
home  and  were  traversing  the  State  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
to  cut  off  the  head  of  any  true  whig  who  should  dare  refuse  to 
form  the  same  coalition  in  the  election  which  they  did  in  the 
nomination.  He  had  come  here  to-day  to  ask  the  whigs  one 
great  question  :  "  Can  they  co-operate  with  their  sixty-six  men 
who  constituted  the  majority  of  Gen.  Scott's  friends  ?" 


286  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

What  did  southern  whigs  want  ?  they  wanted  the  fugitive 
slave  bill  maintained,  they  wanted  a  President  who,  if  it  should 
be  repealed  by  a  majority  of  Congress,  thereby  overruling  the 
Constitution,  would  veto  it.  They  wanted  one,  who  would  throw 
all  his  influence  in  favor  of  stopping  all  agitation  on  this  dis- 
tracting question.  They  wanted  one  who  would  maintain  and 
uphold  the  Constitution  and  thereby  preserve  our  glorious 
Union.  The  sixty-six  wanted  one  of  opposite  character — 
one  that  would  recognize  some  higher  law  than  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  would  rather  see  the  Union  rent  in  twain,  than  sur- 
render one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  wild  and  furious  fanaticism. 
The  whigs  of  Tennessee,  those  who  had  not  been  seduced  by 
visions  of  power  and  office,  differed  from  this  majority  (sixty- 
six)  of  Gen.  Scott's  friends,  as  widely  as  the  poles.  How 
then  was  it  possible  that  they  could  coalesce  with  them  in  this 
election  as  their  three  delegates  had  done  in  the  nomination. 
He  knew  well  how  this  argument  was  met.  No  whig  orator 
had  ever  denied  that  the  majority  of  Scott's  friends  were  abo- 
litionists— rank,  furious  abolitionists.  They  did  not  deny  it, 
but  sought  to  evade  the  crushing  power  of  facts  by  saying 
that  freesoilers  aided  in  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Pierce.  That 
he  was  brought  forward  under  the  auspices  of  the  Van  Bu- 
rens  and  the  Butlers  of  New  York.  He  asked  them  how  often 
had  they  read  and  heard  that  ?  Yet  he,  then  and  in  their  pres- 
ence, would  tell  them  it  was  false — every  word  of  it  false.  He 
knew  that  the  friends  of  the  Van  Burens  (for  they  were  not 
there  themselves)  in  the  Baltimore  Convention,  on  every  ballot 
voted  for  Win.  L.  Marcy.  They  never  voted  for  anybody  else. 
For  a  long  time  they  voted  alone.  They  were  all  in  the  New 
York  delegation.  Virginia  brought  in  Franklin  Pierce.  True, 
those  few  friends  of  the  Van  Burens  voted  finally  for  Gen.  P., 
to  make  his  nomination  as  nearly  unanimous  as  possible.  But 
to  say  that  they  manoeuvred  for  his  nomination,  and  that  he 
was  brought  up  under  their  auspices,  was  a  gross  libel  upon 
the  real  facts  as  they  transpired  in  the  convention.  Some  barn- 
burners, by  which  he  meant  Van  Buren  men,  did  sit  in  our 
convention,  but  they  came  there  bringing  the  highest  proof  of 
their  repentance  and  reformation.  What  was  that  proof? 
Their  voting  for  Marcy,  one  of  the  strongest  friends  of  the 


ON  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  287 

fugitive  slave  law  in  the  United  States — voted  for  him,  after 
be  had  written  and  published  that  he  would  veto  any  bill  passed 
by  Congress  to  repeal  or  impair  its  efficacy.  Mark  the  differ- 
ence. Write  it  on  the  wall — proclaim  it  on  the  house-tops — 
let  all  men  read,  and  hear,  and  know  the  difference  between 
their  convention  and  our  convention.  Abolitionists  were  re- 
ceived in  their  convention,  spitting  on  their  principles  and 
trampling  their  platform  under  their  feet.  The  freesoilers  in 
our  convention,  or  rather  those  who  had  been  such,  came  as 
repentant  sinners — voting-  for  our  platform — voting  for  Marcy, 
who  had  just  declared  he  would  veto  any  bill  repealing  or  af- 
fecting the  fugitive  slave  law.  What  more  could  we  ask? 
What  more  could  they  have  done  ? 

Gov.  Brown  said  he  had  now  finished  this  parallel  between 
the  two  conventions.  He  returned  to  the  great  question  : — 
Would  the  whigs  of  Tennessee,  having  failed  to  get  Mr.  Web- 
ster or  Mr.  Fillmore — the  only  whig  candidates  before  the  con- 
vention— now  consent  to  take  Gen.  Scott  as  their  candidate  by 
adoption  ?     Will  they  take  him  by  adoption  ?     *     *     *     * 

Gov.  Brown,  in  continuation  of  this  argument  at  a  subse- 
quent day  in  the  canvass,  in  Dresden,  maintained  that  the  whig 
party,  as  such,  was  under  no  obligation  thus  to  take  him.  You 
ought  not,  said  he,  because  he  did  not  come  fairly  by  the 
nomination.  The  Archer  letter  contained  a  promise  to  come 
out  in  favor  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  which  was  never  re- 
deemed ;  he  did  not  do  so  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  ;  he  does 
not,  in  any  of  his  many  speeches  which  he  is  now  making  in 
his  western  tour.  He  seems  to  be  entirely  content  with  the 
nomination  without  looking  to  that  promise  at  all.  He  has 
doubtless  read,  and  is  acting  upon,  the  story  of  the  sailor,  who 
when  compelled  to  leave  his  vessel  and  swim  for  safety  to  the 
shore,  in  his  extremity  began  to  pray  to  the  Virgin.  Among 
other  things,  he  promised  that  if  she  would  only  save  him  this 
time,  he  would  burn,  in  honor  of  her,  a  wax  candle  as  big 
as  his  body.  His  comrade,  who  was  swimming  lustily  by  his 
side,  remarked,  "  Thou  fool !  where  can  you  ever  get  a  candle 
as  big  as  your  body?"  "  Never  mind,"  said  he,  "  let  me  once 
get  on  shore,  and  the  Virgin  may  whistle  for  her  candle." 

Yes,  sirs,  Gen.  Scott  got  the  nomination,  and  the  whig  party 
20 


288  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

may  whistle  for  the  candle.  He  got  it  by  the  double-dealing  of 
a  portion  of  the  convention  who  were  specially  instructed  by 
their  constituents  to  vote  for  another.  They  gave  only  a  nomi- 
nal obedience,  whilst  they  were  really,  from  first  to  last,  in 
favor  of  Gen.  Scott.  He  got  it  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  great 
doctrine  of  instruction,  without  which,  Gov.  Brown  contended, 
this  government  was  no  better  than  any  other  government. 
He  got  it  by  refusing  to  come  out  publicly  on  the  fugitive  slave 
bill  and  the  compromise  generally,  although  an  hundred  whigs, 
J.  C.  Jones  among  the  number,  earnestly  entreated  him  to  do  so. 
The  presence  of  Gov.  Seward,  and  Gen.  Scott's  silence,  is 
ominous  of  the  vast  influence  which  is  hereafter  to  be  exer- 
cised over  him.  A  senator  in  Congress  and  one  hundred  other 
whigs  may  go  to  him  and  appeal  to  him  to  give  his  views,  and 
Mr.  Seward  has  only  to  go  along  with  them  and  say,  with  a 
significant  nod,  "  Yes,  sir,  come  out,"  to  seal  his  lips  against 
every  declaration  of  his  principles.  Gen.  Scott  knew  well  that 
the  hundred  whigs  expected  him  to  come  out  for  the  fugitive 
slave  bill,  whilst  Gov.  Seward  required  him  to  come  out  against 
it.  In  the  face  of  this  fact,  stated  by  Gov.  Jones,  my  competi- 
tor, Judge  Brown,  on  yesterday  declared,  that  so  far  from  hav- 
ing any  influence  over  him,  Gen.  Scott  would  hang  the  aboli- 
tionists as  high  as  Haman.  Ha !  are  you  sure  of  that  ?  I 
think,  said  he,  the  danger  is,  the  hanging  will  be  the  other  way. 
I  think  the  abolitionists  have  rather  gotten  the  rope  around  the 
Judge's  neck,  and  will  be  more  apt  to  hang  him  and  Gen.  Scott 
and  all  of  us  together.  Now  you,  said  Gov.  B.,  go  a  great  deal 
farther  than  the  whig  elector  for  this  end  of  the  State  ;  as  far 
as  he  goes  is,  that  when  some  one  told  Gen.  Scott  that  it  had 
been  said,  that  if  he  was  elected  Seward  would  have  too  much 
influence  over  him,  he  replied,  "  Damn  Seward."  Now  even 
this  last  story,  I  fear,  is  too  much  like  that  of  the  man  who 
said  he  had  been  up  towards  Windsor  Castle  where  the  king 
was  residing.  "  Ah  !"  said  his  friend,  "  what  have  you  been 
up  there  for  ?"  "  Why,  to  see  the  king."  "  Did  you  see  him?" 
"  Yes,  I  did."  "  Did  you  speak  to  him  ?"  "  Yes,  I  cursed  him 
black  and  blue !"  "  What !  did  he  hear  you  curse  him  ?"  "  O, 
no,  he  was  about  a  half  a  mile  off!"  So  I  think  it  will  be  when- 
ever Gen.  Scott  shall  curse  Wm.  H.  Seward.  So  here  you  have 


ON,  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  289 

it :  Judge  Brown  tells  you  Scott  will  hang  them,  and  Genera? 
Haskell  tells  you  he  will  at  least  damn  them.  Can  he  offer  to 
hang  those  sixty-six  friends  of  his  who  stuck  to  him  through 
thick  and  thin,  and  who  spit  upon  and  spurned  the  whig  plat- 
form ?  How  can  he  have  the  heart  to  damn  even  Fred  Doug- 
lass, the  free  negro,  who  from  first  to  last  (or  his  representative) 
stuck  to  him  closer  than  a  brother  !  The  whole  story  reflects 
no  credit  either  on  the  piety  or  gratitude  of  your  candidate. 

Sirs,  it  was  this  very  silence,  and  Gov.  Seward's  power  by 
his  mere  presence  and  look,  to  insure  it,  that  furnished  a  pow- 
erful motive  to  the  abolitionists  to  select  him  as  their  candi- 
date ;  besides,  he  had  spoken  out  in  their  favor  on  many  oc- 
casions ;  he  had  spoken  out  when  he  declared,  with  John  Q. 
Adams,  that  those  petitions  ought  to  be  received,  and  referred, 
and  reported  on  in  Congress,  like  all  other  petitions  ;  he  had 
spoken  out  in  his  Atkinson  letter  when  he  said,  "  I  am  per- 
suaded that  it  is  a  high  moral  obligation  of  masters  and  slave- 
holding  States  to  employ  all  means  not  incompatible  with  the 
safety  of  both  colors,  to  meliorate  slavery  even  to  extermina- 
tion." What  a  word  for  abolitionists  !  Gen.  Scott  labelled  it 
on  his  person,  and  every  fanatic  of  the  north  had  only  to  look 
at  him  and  spell  ex-ter-mi-na-tion.  So  much  as  to  what  at- 
tracted the  abolitionists  to  Gen.  Scott ;  now  what  was  it  that 
attracted  him  to  them  ?  I  answer,  the  Presidency.  He  had 
looked  around  him  to  count  his  chances ;  he  saw  the  whigs  of 
the  south  had  selected  Mr.  Fillmore ;  the  whigs  of  the  north 
had  selected  Mr.  Webster,  and  the  abolitionists  alone  were' 
without  a  candidate  ;  he  wanted  their  votes,  and  they  wanted 
his  name  and  fame  to  drag  them  into  respectability,  and  to 
give  them  the  advantage  of  a  more  favorable  position  for  fu- 
ture agitation  and  mischief. 

Sirs,  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  Gen  Scott  is  really  an  abo- 
litionist, nor  to  intimate  that  hundreds  and  thousands  who  sup- 
port him  are  such  ;  but  his  alliance  with  them,  and  his  consent 
to  head  and  lead  them  on,  is  not  the  less  dangerous  to  the 
south  nor  discreditable  to  him.  I  say  this  to  repel  the  charge 
of  Judge  Brown  that  the  democratic  party  is  disposed  to  slan- 
der and  traduce  Gen.  Scott.  I  repel  it,  and  defy  him  to  the 
proof!  He  says  that  when  he  had  fought  all  the  battles  of 
Mexico  and  subdued  that  nation,  that  he  was   arrested,  his 


290  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

sword  taken  from  him,  and  he  wag  brought  home  in  chains. 
Sirs,  where  did  he  learn  all  this  ?  In  what  book  ?  In  what 
record  ?  No,  sir,  he  is  behind  the  times.  Gen.  Scott  was  never 
arrested — never  unsworded.  He  arrested  others — unsworded 
them — and  did  every  thing  in  his  power  to  disgrace  them  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy ;  but  he  was  never  arrested,  and  was 
never  put  on  trial  for  anything.  He  was  recalled  from  Mexi- 
co, but  he  was  recalled  at  his  own  request.  Hear  what  the 
Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Marcy,  tells  him  and  you  on  this  sub- 
ject: "  As  early  as  June  you  begged  to  be  recalled  ;  you  allege 
that  this  application  was  rebukingly  declined.  This  is  not 
saying  the  exact  thing.  The  reply  to  your  request  was,  that 
it  would  be  decided  with  exclusive  reference  to  the  public  good. 
When  that  shall  render  it  proper,  in  his  opinion,  to  withdraw 
you  from  the  present  command,  his  determination  to  do  so  will 
be  made  known  to  you.  Judging  from  the  state  of  things  at 
the  head-quarters  of  the  army  in  January,  he  (the  President) 
concluded  that  he  ought  no  longer  to  require  of  you  reluctant 
service  as  Commanding  General." 

There,  said  Gov.  Brown,  is  the  whole  foundation  for  alt 
Judge  Brown's  complaints  of  slander  and  persecution.  He 
begged  himself  to  be  recalled ;  he  was  recalled ;  and  now  we 
hear  that  he  was  arrested,  unsworded,  brought  home  a  prisoner 
in  disgrace !  On  the  score  of  slanders  against  our  respective 
candidates,  I  am  ready  to  compare  notes  at  any  moment.  Who 
is  fabricating  them  every  day  against  Gen.  Pierce  ?  A  com- 
mittee at  Washington  made  up  of  the  worst  enemies  the  south 
ever  had.  From  this  great  laboratory  of  falsehood  and  lies, 
they  are  sent  forth  north  or  south  as  they  may  best  affect  the 
public  mind.  Falsehood,  perjury  and  forgery  are  doing  hourly 
their  infamous  work.  The  charge  of  cowardice  before  the 
enemy  and  in  the  social  circle  had  its  brief  career,  no  doubt 
misleading  thousands,  but  now,  when  the  refutation  and  recan- 
tation can  hardly  be  expected  to  overtake  the  original  slander, 
they  are  freely  withdrawn.  But,  sir,  detraction  is  so  common 
that  I  will  not  dwell  upon  it.  My  time  is  nearly  out,  and  I 
wish  to  make  an  appeal  to  my  whig  brethren  in  relation  to  the 
coming  election.  I  do  not  ask  them  to  vote  for  Gen.  Pierce, 
although  it  would  not  break  one  single  tie  that  holds  you  to  the 


ON   THE  PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION.  291 

whig  party.  Gen  Scott  is  not  }^our  candidate ;  he  was  not 
nominated  by  you:  nay,  he  beat  you  down  -and  prevented  you 
from  having  one.  Still  I  fear  that  you  will  hardly  adopt  the 
nomination  of  Gen.  Pierce.  You  ought  to  do  it  under  the 
circumstances  of  the  case,  but  still,  I  will  not  insist  upon  that. 
1  only  ask  that  you  will  stand  off  and  let  us  fight  this  abolition 
battle  alone.  We  will  fight  it  successfully — we  will  save  your 
property  as  well  as  our  own.  I  pray  you  not  to  throw  your 
weight  and  power  against  us.  We  cannot  conquer  you  and 
the  abolitionists  both.  You  ought  not  to  expect  us  to  do  it,  and 
if  you  thought  the  danger  as  great  as  we  do,  you  certainly 
would  not  require  it.  That  we  do  not  over-estimate  the  danger 
look  to  the  opinions  and  actions  of  your  own  party.  Gentry 
and  Williams  are  as  wise  and  careful  of  your  rights  as  Gov. 
Jones  and  W.  T.  Haskell — Epriam  H.  Foster  and  Francis  B. 
Fogg,  have  as  much  sagacity  to  see  danger  as  any  other  men 
whatsoever  in  your  party.  So  have  Dr.  Shelby,  Dr.  McNairy, 
Mr.  Whiteside  and  others  that  might  be  named.  If  these  wise 
men  of  your  own  household  were  here  to-day  addressing  you 
as  I  am  doing,  they  would  make  the  same  appeal  which  I  now 
do.  They  would  say,  we  are  whigs,  the  oldest  in  the  State,  but 
this  election  does  not  turn  upon  whiggery  and  democracy.  It 
turns  upon  your  right  of  property  in  slaves,  under  the  Consti- 
tution, nine  hundred  millions  in  amount;  it  turns  upon  the 
preservation  of  that  property,  and  the  future  peace  and  repose 
of  fifteen  States  of  the  Union,  and  we  cannot,  and  will  not 
support  Gen.  Scott.  When  whig  questions  shall  again  arise, 
we  shall  be  whigs  again,  but  now  we  go  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Union  and  of  our  rights  under  the  Constitution. 


SPEECH 

On  the  Progress  of  the  United  States  and  on  the  Slavery  Question. 
Delivered  at  Odd  Fellows'  Hall,  (Nashville,  Tenn.,)  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Orphan  Asylum,  by  Ex-Gov.  A,  V.  Brown, 
in  1850. 


It  is  now  just  three  quarters  of  a  century  since  the  United 
States  proclaimed  her  determination  to  take  her  place  amongst 
the  independent  nations  of  the  earth.  It  was  a  high  and  bold 
resolve,  so  full  of  peril  that  it  drew  tears  from  the  interpid 
patriots  who  signed  the  ever  memorable  declaration.  It  star- 
tled the  mother  country  and  astonished  the  other  nations  of 
the  old  world.  It  was* a  contest  of  youth  against  matured 
and  hardened  manhood;  of  a  weak  and  scattered  people 
against  the  most  formidable  and  powerful  nation  on  the  globe. 
Without  money,  without  an  army,  with  scarcely  a  single  ship 
of  war  on  the  ocean,  without  even  entire  unanimity  of  senti- 
ment amongst  her  own  people,  she  fearlessly  engaged  in  the 
struggle,  resolved  to  be  free,  or  to  perish  in  the  attempt. 

A  cause  so  just  and  an  example  so  heroic,  could  not  fail  soon 
to  attract  the  favor  and  sympathy  of  mankind.  France,  partly 
from  hereditary  hatred  to  England,  but  mainly  from  the  ger- 
minating seeds  of  her  own  subsequent  revolution,  tendered  to 
the  young  Republic  her  auspicious  and  powerful  assistance* 
For  seven  years  she  maintained  the  long  and  dubious  contest. 
History  has  faithfully  recorded  the  consummate  skill  of  her 


ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  293 

generals,  the  heroic  valor  of  her  soldiery,  and  the  patriotic  sac- 
rifices of  her  gallant  people. 

At  last,  crowned  with  success,  with  her  liberties  firmly 
established  and  their  acknowledgment  extorted  from  her  op- 
pressor, she  stood  forth  the  wonder  of  the  age,  the  admiration 
of  the  world  ! 

But  whatever  of  skill  or  of  valor  she  had  exhibited  in  the 
war,  was  far  outshone  by  the  wisdom  she  displayed  in  the  form 
of  government  which  she  subsequently  devised  and  adopted. 
She  summoned  her  wise  men  throughout  all  her  borders  to 
come  up  to  the  great  work  of  devising  a  system  whieh  should 
be  worthy  of  the  mighty  struggle  through  which  she  had  passed, 
and  of  the  gallant  people  who  had  nobly  sustained  it.  They 
came.  Washington  came;  Benjamin  Franklin  came;  old 
Roger  Sherman  came;  James  Madison  came;  Rutledge  and 
the  Pinckneys  came  ;  and  many  others  whose  names  and 
fame  have  long  been  identified  with  her  highest  glory  and  re- 
nown. When  the  great  work  of  forming  her  Constitution  was 
completed,  it  was  transmitted  to  Congress  by  George  Washing- 
ton, who  had  presided  over  its  formation,  accompanied  by  a 
letter,  which,  like  his  farewell  address,  ought  to  be  forever  pre- 
served, and  as  often  referred  to  for  lessons  of  wisdom  and  pa- 
triotic devotion  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  I  will  not 
withhold  on  the  present  occasion  the  following  impressive  ex- 
tract :  "  In  all  our  deliberations  we  kept  steadily  in  our  view 
that  which  appears  to  us  the  greatest  interest  of  every  true 
American,  the  consolidation  of  our  Union,  in  which  is  involved 
our  prosperity,  felicity,  safety,  perhaps  our  national  existence. 
This  important  consideration,  seriously  and  deeply  impressed 
on  our  minds,  led  each  State  in  convention  to  be  less  rigid  on 
points  of  inferior  magnitude  than  might  have  been  otherwise 
expected  ;  and  thus  the  Constitution  which  we  now  present  is 
the  result  of  a  spirit  of  amity,  and  of  that  mutual  deference  and 
concession,  which  the  peculiarity  of  our  political  situation 
rendered  indispensable.  *  *  *  That  it  may  promote  the 
lasting  welfare  of  that  country  so  dear  to  us  all,  and  secure  her 
freedom  and  happiness,  is  our  most  ardent  wish." 

This  noble  monument  of  human  wisdom  was  subsequently 
adopted  by  the  States,    It  became  our  Constitution,  our  Union, 


294  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

our  system  of  federal   government.      They  are  not  separate 
and  distinct  things.     They  are  one,  indivisible  and  identical. 
Whoever  has  read  the  one  has  read  the  other.     Whoever  obeys 
one,  obeys  the  other.      Whoever  dissolves  the  one,  dissolves 
the  other.      As  the  old  articles  of  confederation  formed  and 
were  the  Union,  so  the  new  Constitution  became  and  is  a  more 
perfect  Union.     Under  it,  our  country  has  thus  far  run  a  career 
of  prosperity  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  nations.     Triumph- 
ant in  two  wars  since  its  adoption,  especially  brilliant  and  in- 
vincible in  the  last  one,  she  has  placed  her  military  renown 
above  all  cavil  and  beyond  the  reach  of  all  competition.     In 
peace,  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  which  bless  and  adorn  such 
a  condition,  she  has  been  no  less  an  object  of  admiration  and 
praise.     From  three  millions,  her  population  has  grown  up  to 
more  than  twenty  millions.     From  thirteen  original  States  we 
have  become  a  confederacy  of  thirty  republics,  and  can  scarcely 
announce  the  number  until  another  and  another  are  added  to 
the  glittering  and  gorgeous  galaxy.      They  come  from  every 
part  of  this  wide  spread  continent;  from  the  lakes  of  the  north; 
from  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  or  the  distant  regions  of  California, 
glittering  with  her  gold  and  sparkling  with  her  diamonds.     Her 
wide  spread  commerce  is  seen  floating  on  every  sea,  penetra- 
ting every  climate  and  country,  and  protected  by  a  navy  which 
has  carried  her  name  and  her  fame  to  every  part  of  the  habita- 
ble globe.     Success  in  agricultural  pursuits  has  crowned  with 
plenty  the  labors  of  her  own  people,  and  carried  abundance  and 
joy  to  the  famishing  population  of  the  old  world.     In  her  inter- 
nal improvements;  her  canals;  her  railroads;  her  telegraphic 
lines  ;  the  removal  of  obstructions  from  her  majestic  rivers,  she 
has  exhibited  the  elements  of  a  great  and  prosperous  people. 
But  above  all,  she  has  become  "  the  desire  of  all  nations,"  in 
the  freedom  of  her  institutions,  the  justice  and  equality  of  her 
laws,  and  the  wisdom  and  impartiality  with  which  they  are  ad- 
ministered.    In  fine,  her  past  history  and  progress  is  a  bright 
and   almost    magic  picture    on  which  the    civilized  nations 
are  now  gazing  with  intense  admiration  and  delight.     Most 
willingly  would  I  hold  that  picture  up  to  your  gaze ;  to  your  ad- 
miration ;  to  your  own  patriotic  pride  and  just  exultation ;  but 
a  sterner  and  far  less  agreeable  duty  lies  before  me. 


ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  295 

In  the  midst  of  this  unparalleled  progress,  when  we  are  but 
midway  between  the  morning  and  high  noon  of  our  prosperity, 
the  gloomy  shadows  of  sectional  discontent  come  stealing  over 
and  around  us,  deepening  and  darkening  as  they  come.  A  dread 
eclipse  seems  to  be  approaching.  Amid  the  gathering  gloom, 
the  cry  is  heard,  that  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  our  confede- 
rate system  is  in  danger.  From  the  east  and  the  west,  from 
the  north  and  the  south,  the  messages  of  State  Governors,  the 
resolutions  of  State  legislatures  and  the  solemn  deliberations 
of  large  popular  assemblies,  confirm  the  astounding  and  almost 
incredible  annunciation.  Panic  stricken  and  amazed,  we  turn 
with  patriotic  instinct  to  the  centre  of  our  political  system  ;  to 
the  city  which  bears  the  name  of  the  illustrious  father  of  his  coun- 
try; we  turn  to  it  for  light,  and  peace,  and  safety.  But  no 
light  is  to  be  seen  gleaming  from  her  council  chambers.  They 
have  all  been  put  out.  For  weeks  and  months,  no  speaker ; 
no  clerks;  no  sergeant-at-arms ;  no  chaplain;  no  organization 
for  the  public  good,  but  perpetual  readiness  for  agitation  and 
mischief.  Nearly  all,  but  not  all  of  those  great  and  good  men 
who  used  to  be  there  from  the  north  to  perfect,  adorn  and  per- 
petuate our  system  of  government,  have  retired  from  the  thea- 
tre of  action  or  have  been  superseded  by  men  whose  sole  de- 
light seems  to  be,  day  after  day,  and  night  after  night,  amid 
the  fire  and  smoke  and  suffocation  of  a  wild  fanaticism,  to 
deal '  blow  after  blow  upon  the  Constitution,  until  the  Union 
shall  crumble  to  ruins  around  them.  Let  us  now  pause  and 
look  at  the  proposed  invasions  of  that  heretofore  consecrated 
instrument. 

The  first  one  is,  that  the  clause  allowing  the  representation 
of  three-fifths  of  the  slaves,  shall  be  expunged,  obliterated 
from  the  Constitution.  It  is  a  clause  which  had  long  been  de- 
bated in  the  convention.  At  that  period  slavery  existed  in 
several  of  the  northern  as  well  as  the  southern  States.  But  in 
the  spirit  of  amity  and  of  mutual  forbearance  and  concession, 
the  difficulty  was  compromised ;  and  Massachusetts  and  Vir- 
ginia, Connecticut  and  Georgia  walked  harmoniously  into  the 
Union,  co-equals  in  every  respect,  having  compromised  this 
and  all  other  points  of  difference,  as  the  basis  and  principle  of 
representation.      Cannot   Massachusetts  now   consent  to  do 


296  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

what  Massachusetts  was  content  to  do  then  ?  Is  the  Connec- 
ticut of  to-day  unwilling  to  stand  to  the  compact  ratified  by 
the  Connecticut  of  1787  ?  If  not,  on  whose  head  shall  fall  the 
blame  of  destroying  that  compact  ?  The  south  cannot  afford 
voluntarily  to  submit  to  a  great  change  like  this.  She  is  al- 
ready in  a  vast  and  increasing  minority  ;  her  contemplated 
exclusion  from  the  territories  of  the  United  States  would  soon 
reduce  her  so  low  in  the  scale  of  insignificance  as  to  sink  her 
on  every  invasion  of  her  rights,  far  below  the  protection  of  even 
a  Presidential  veto.  When  that  shall  have  been  done,  who 
can  doubt  that  the  feeble  barriers,  which  are  now  admitted  to 
forbid  interference  with  slavery  in  the  States,  will  all  be  bro- 
ken down  and  the  dark  spirit  of  murder  and  insurrection  stalk 
mad,  riotous  and  bloody  through  the  land.  To  ask  her  volun- 
tarily to  make  this  change  is  but  an  invitation  to  suicide ;  to 
force  it  upon  her  by  numerical  power  is  to  break  and  dissolve 
the  Constitution ;  to  break  and  dissolve  the  Union ;  to  break 
and  dissolve  the  federal  government ;  no  matter  which  of  these 
forms  of  expression  may  be  adopted.  In  such  an  act  the  south 
would  stand  passive,  and  faithful  to  the  original  compact;  the 
north  would  be  active  and  destructive  of  it.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  Constitution  expressly  provides  for  its  own  amend- 
ment, and  therefore  no  alteration  can  be  destructive  of  it. 
But  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  was  to  be  amended  as  it  was 
formed,  in  the  spirit  of  amity  and  mutual  concession ;  not  of 
hostile  and  degrading  aggression.  To  amend  by  improving 
not  by  destroying  those  guarantees  of  life  and  property,  with- 
out which  we  know  it  never  would  have  been  adopted. 

Look  next  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Col- 
umbia, in  the  forts,  arsenals,  navy-yards,  and  other  public  es- 
tablishments of  the  United  States.  What  adequate  induce- 
ment can  the  north  have  to  raise  all  this  clamor  for  years, 
about  a  little  district,  ten  miles  square,  (now  much  less,)  and 
a  few  inconsiderable  spots  and  places  thinly  scattered  over  the 
land,  scarcely  larger  than  a  mustard  seed  when  compared  to 
the  vast  body  of  the  slave-holding  region  ?  .  Would  a  micro- 
scopic concession  like  this  appease  a  conscience,  wounded  and 
lacerated  by  the  sin  of  slavery?  If  abolished  in  these,  it 
would  be  but  the  removal  of  one  grain  of  sand  from  the  beach— 


ON  THE   PROGRESS  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES,  297 

the  withdrawal  of  but  one  drop  from  the  vast  ocean  of  alleged 
national  guilt.  But  small  as  it  might  seem  to  be,  the  south 
cannot  safely  submit  to  abolition  even  here.  How  could 
Maryland,  how  could  Virginia  submit  to  it  ?  When  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  should  have  become  a  city  of  refuge  for  the 
slaves  of  the  surrounding  country,  what  earthly  power  could 
prevent  the  chivalrous  sons  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  from  as- 
serting their  rights  and  reclaiming  their  property  ?  Members 
of  Congress,  who  now  shudder  with  horror  at  reading  in  some 
metropolitan  newspaper,  the  advertisement  of  some  negro 
slave  for  sale,  might  then  be  doomed  to  witness  many  a  scene 
of  strife,  and  to  behold  many  a  wounded  captive  borne  off  in 
chains,  who,  without  his  officious  legislation,  wrould  have  re- 
mained contented  at  home,  eating  the  same  kind  of  food,  re- 
posing through  the  same  hours  of  the  night,  and  working  side 
by  side  with  the  master  through  the  day,  in  the  same  fields, 
where  both  had  been  reared,  in  kind  and  sometimes  affectionate 
regard  for  each  other. 

Look  next  to  another  of  these  aggressions  on  the  rights  of 
the  south,  which  proposes  under  the  pretext  of  regulating  com- 
merce among  the  States,  that  no  slave,  for  no  purpose,  and 
under  no  circumstances  whatever,  shall  be  carried  by  his  law- 
ful owner,  from  one  slave-holding  State  to  another.  That 
where  slavery  now  is,  there  it  shall  forever  remain,  until  by  its 
own  increase,  it  shall  outnumber  the  opposite  race,  and  thus 
by  the  united  combination  of  causes — the  fears  of  the  master, 
the  diminution  in  value,  and  the  exhausted  condition  of  the 
soil,  the  final  purposes  of  fanaticism,  whatever  they  may  be, 
shall  be  accomplished.  For  this  extraordinary  proposition  no 
apology  can  be  offered  ;  for  it  is  established  by  universal  ob- 
servation, that  if  you  give  to  slavery  but  scope  and  compass, 
if  you  permit  it  to  be  dilated  over  ample  space,  it  loses  much 
of  that  oppression  which  even  a  morbid  humanity  could  de- 
plore. In  many  regions  of  the  south,  I  hesitate  not  to  declare 
that  in  point  of  care  and  anxiety — in  point  of  abundance  of 
food  and  raiment — of  healthful  but  humble  habitation,  the 
slave  is  but  little  distinguished  from  the  master. 

Before  we  further  pursue  this  enumeration  of  our  wrongs 
permit  me  to  say,  that  I  do  not  include  the  whole  north  as  en- 


298  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

gaged  in  this  crusade  against  us.  Whilst  we  fear  that  we  can 
exempt  no  large  classes  and  no  large  portions  of  any  party, 
1  freely  admit  many  individual  exceptions  that  challenge  our 
highest  admiration  and  gratitude — men  who  stand  forth  among 
the  brightest  ornaments  of  our  age  and  country. 

The  last  in  the  series  of  aggressions  to  which  I  shall  call 
your  attention,  is  that  one  commonly  called  the  Wilmot  pro- 
viso, by  which  Congress  is  called  upon  to  prohibit  every  slave- 
holder from  removing  with  his  slaves  to  the  territory  lately  ac- 
quired from  Mexico — a  territory  as  large  as  the  old  thirteen 
States  originally  composing  the  Union — a  territory  won  by  the 
common  valor,  and  paid  for  out  of  the  common  treasury  of  the 
nation.  Simply  to  state  the  proposition  is  to  show  its  enor- 
mity. Even  the  brigand  will  make  honorable  divisions  of  the 
spoils  among  all  who  went  willingly  and  bore  themselves  va- 
liantly in  the  expedition  of  rapine  and  plunder.  Will  proud 
and  independent  States  do  less  with  their  compeers  in  an  ex- 
pedition of  honor,  and  duty,  and  patriotism  ?  If  disposed  to 
taunt,  I  might  demand  to  know  if  the  north,  a  large  portion 
of  it  at  least*  did  go  willingly  ?  Whether  she  did  not  denounce 
the  expedition  as  wicked  and  unjust,  and  the  acqusition  barren 
and  worthless  ?  How  then  is  it  that  she  shall  demand  the 
lion's  share  of  it  to  herself  ?  Even  after  it  had  been  acquired, 
many  there  were  ready  to  abandon  it  and  surrender  it  back 
to  what  they  were  pleased  to  term  a  weak  and  helpless  and 
innocent  people— more  willing  then  to  give  all  to  Mexico,  than 
they  now  are  one-half  of  it  to  their  own  countrymen.  And 
what  has  the  south  ever  done  to  merit  such  exclusion  from  the 
common  soil,  the  common  property  of  the  nation  ?  Trace  her 
history — in  peace  and  in  war — on  every  battle-field,  and  in 
every  council-chamber,  she  has  been  true  and  faithful  to  all  her 
engagements  to  the  north.  Observe  her  more  especially  in 
the  contest,  by  which  that  very  territory  was  acquired  from 
which  she  is  now  to  be  excluded.  Both  of  your  great  com- 
manders were  from  the  south.  Many  subordinate  generals, 
their  "  kindred  thunderbolts  in  war,"  were  also  from  the  south. 
An  equal  number — nay,  a  majority  of  your  invincible  soldiery 
were  from  the  south.  Why  should  they  be  permited  to  gather 
laurels  from  Palo  Alto  to  Buena  Vista — from  Vera  Cruz  to  the 


ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  299 

Mexican  capital,  and  then,  when  every  province  had  been  sub- 
dued, and  your  flag-  was  proudly  waving  over  the  halls  of  the 
Montezmas,  why  should  they  be  required  to  bow  their  heads, 
and  meekly  to  retire — excluded — driven  out  from  the  country 
moistened  with  their  blood,  and  immortalized  by  their  valor. 
Could  the  north  point  me  to  "  the  book  and  page" — to  the  very 
clause  of  the  Constitution  which  would  expressly  warrant  an 
exclusion  so  unequal,  and  so  unjust,  I  would  not  yet  believe 
that  a  land  that  bears  upon  her  bosom  the  proud  and  lofty 
monument  of  Bunker  Hill,  would  ever  perpetrate  so  foul — so 
incomprehensibly  monstrous  deed.  But  that  book— that  page — 
that  clause  can  never  be  shown.  It  is  vain  to  point  us  to  that 
provision  of  the  Constitution  which  declares  that,  "  Congress 
shall  have  power  to  dispose  of,,  and  make  rules  and  regula- 
tions respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to 
the  United  States."  Territory  means  the  land — the  soil — 
which  belonged  to  her.  The  property  which  she  might  have 
need  to  dispose  of.  To  dispose  of— to  sell  her  territory  or  pub- 
lic lands,  rules  and  regulations  might  and  would  become  ne- 
cessary :  they  must  be  surveyed.  The  size  and  form  of  her 
surveys,  the  price  which  should  be  demanded  for  them,  the  lo- 
cation of  the  offices  where  the  same  shall  be  disposed  of,  were 
all  among  the  "  rules  and  regulations"  contemplated  by  this 
section.  It  did  not  speak  of  political  associations  or  govern- 
ments under  that  term.  The  exclusion  of  every  such  con- 
clusion is  to  be  found  in  the  after  declaration  "  that  nothing 
in  this  Constitution  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prejudice  any 
claims  of  the  United  States,  or  any  particular  State."  Under 
this  clause,  however,  the  United  States  may  entirely  prevent 
the  formation  of  political  associations  or  governments  upon 
her  territory  or  public  lands.  She  may  exclude  the  settlement 
of  them  altogether.  She  may  choose  to  reserve  them  for  after 
times  or  to  hold  them  as  uninhabited  barriers  between  herself 
and  some  conterminous  nation.  If  such  should  not  be  her  policy 
she  may  permit  and  invite  their  settlement  with  a  view  to  politi- 
cal organization.  But  because  that  territory  is  hers,  she  may 
prescribe  the  description  of  persons,  whether  unnaturalized 
foreigners  or  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  who  may  in- 
habit it.     She  may  discriminate  against  the  former  on  the 


300  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

great  principles  of  self-defence  against  the  formation   of  an 
organized  government  of  foreign  subjects   on  her  own  soil, 
within  her  own  boundaries,  hostile  in  sentiment,  and  danger- 
ous  to  her  republican  form   of   government.      Against  and 
amongst  her  own  people,  she  can  make  no  such  discrimination, 
because  neither  founded  on  necessity,  consistent  with  the  com- 
munity of  property,  nor  warranted  by  that  perfect  equality  of 
righto  secured  to  the  people  of  the  States  by  the  Constitution. 
For  the  same  reason,  (the  right  of  property)  she  may  desig- 
nate the  boundaries  within  which  such  political  associations  may 
be  formed.     The  land,  the  soil,  the  territory  is  her  own,  and  she 
may  therefore  well  determine  such  a  question  according  to  her 
own  will  and  pleasure.     All  other   questions   preliminary  to 
political  organization  and  to  subsequent  application  for  ad- 
mission into  the  Union,  acted  on  by  Congress,  must  be  the 
result  of  strict  necessity  or  of  acquiescence  on  part  of  the  peo- 
ple for  mutual  accommodation  and  convenience;  all  these  ques- 
tions relate  chiefly  to  mere  modes  of  action  and  sink  into  com- 
parative insignificance  in  this  discussion.     But  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  self  government  inherent  in  every  people,   and   the 
guarded   and  limited  powers  granted  to  the  general  govern- 
ment, would  clearly  indicate  to  my  mind,  that  whatever    Con- 
gress has  done  or  may  hereafter  do  in  reference  to  introducing 
measures  preliminary  to  the  organization  of  territorial  govern- 
ments, she  ought  never  to  enter  upon  direct  and  immediate  leg- 
islation for  them.     But  my  purpose  is  not  here  to  discuss  the 
Constitutional  questions  involved  in  the   present  contest  be- 
tween the  north  and  the  south.     This  is  neither  the  time  nor  the 
occasion.     I  therefore  pass  to  another,  and  would  solemnly  and 
earnestly  enquire  what  the  north  can  expect  to  gain  by  all  these 
high  and  imperious  demands  !     Does   she  expect  thereby  to 
wipe  out  the  stain  of  what  she  is  pleased,  to  call  the  national 
sin  of  slavery  ?     Why  slavery  has  no  nationality  !     It  is  pure- 
ly a  local   and  sectional  institution.     Whatever  of  sin  may 
be  ascribed  to  it  can  never  attach  in  any  degree  to  the  north, 
until  we  obliterate  the  States  and   become  one  vast  consoli- 
dated government.     If  it  be  replied  that  whilst  this  is  true  as 
to  slavery  in  the  States,  yet  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
is  national  and  the  introduction  of  slavery  there  would  be  a 


ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES,  301 

national  transgression — well,  we  have  agreed  to  set  bounds  to 
this  imputed  sin,  by  the  compromise  of  the  Constitution,  by  the 
Missouri  compromise,  by  the  Texas  compromise.  And  even 
under  these  we  ask  the  north  to  give  no  affirmative  sanction  to 
the  sin  or  other  evils  of  slavery.  All  we  require  of  her  is  to 
take  no  action  on  the  subject.  Will  not  this  do  them  ?  It  did 
the  venerable  men  of  the  north  sixty  years  ago.  It  satisfied, 
them  thirty  years  ago  when  Missouri  came  into  the  Union. 
Why  not  now  ?  Let  them  remember  too,  that  whether  they 
admit  slavery  upon  one  foot  of  our  territory  or  not,  cannot  af- 
fect the  question  of  its  sinfulness  in  the  slightest  degree. 
Admit  slavery  to-morrow  into  every  territory  north  and  south 
of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes,  and  you  add  not  a 
single  one  to  the  number.  Exclude  them,  and  you  make  their 
number  not  a  single  one  the  less.  The  aggregate  amount  of 
sin  and  of  suffering,  as  you  regard  it,  will  therefore  remain 
the  same  whether  you  fail  or  succeed  in  this  notable  scheme  of 
conscientious  purgation. 

Let  me  further  enquire  of  the  north,  when  she  has  succeed- 
ed in  all  her  proposed  measures,  what  she  expects  to  accom- 
plish for  the  relief  of  "  the  poor  enslaved  and  down-trodden 
sons  of  Africa-?"  You  would  shake  a  continent  from  the  cen- 
tre to  its  circumference  for  their  relief.  You  would  deal  blow 
after  blow  on  the  Constitution,  until  you  would  make  the  Union 
reel  and  stagger  like  a  falling  and  dying  man,  to  lighten  their 
yoke  and  loosen  their  chains  ;  and  what,  I  demand  to  know,  is 
likely  to  be  your  successs  ?  Deluded  by  your  perpetual  agita- 
tions, they  become  gloomy  and  discontented  with  their  lot. 
Suspicion  watches  every  look  and  refers  every  action  to  some 
settled  purpose  of  intended  insurrection.  If  outbreaks  ensue, 
destitute  of  arms,  and  ignorant  of  their  use  if  they  had  any, 
with  no  concert  of  action,  and  no  leader  to  conduct  them,  they 
would  soon  be  dispersed,  or  shot  down  in  the  fields  and  the 
highways  like  so  many  wild  beasts  of  the  forest.  Thus  they 
would  perish;  by  famine,  by  the  sword,  by  the  halter;  and 
dying,  would  heap  curses  on  those  who  had  disturbed  them  in 
their  former  contentment  and  repose.  But  let  us  suppose 
that  their  efforts  should  be  crowned  with  success  so  far  as  to 
secure  their  escape  from  their  further  bondage.     Where  shall 


302  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

they  go  ?  who  will  receive  them  ?  Will  the  north  ?  Never  ! 
Notified  of  their  approach,  the  north  would  meet  them  on  the 
border,  drive  them  back,  or  strew  the  earth  with  their  dead 
bodies.  Would  the  north  ever  consent  to  pay  for  them  and 
thus  secure  their  final  and  certain  emancipation  ?  Never ! 
Would  she  consent  to  pay  even  the  expenses  of  their  trans- 
portation to  the  shores  of  their  native  country  ?  Never  !  Would 
she  even  allot  to  them  a  home  and  a  resting  place  on  the 
banks  of  the  distant  Oregon  or  the  plains  of  the  Sacramento  ? 
No  never — especially  now,  when  gold  is  washed  in  every  river 
and  sparkles  on  the  summit  of  every  mountain.  I  again  ask, 
what  is  to  become  of  them  ?  Excited  to  rebellion  but  too 
weak  to  conquer ;  encouraged  to  fly  and  yet  find  no  people, 
no  country  willing  to  receive  them  !  Would  to  God  that  I 
could  send  my  voice  to-night  into  every  town  and  village  and 
farm  house  of  the  north.  I  would  say,  let  this  people  alone. 
They  are  now  comparatively  contented  and  happy.  They 
are  well  clothed,  well  housed,  and  well  fed.  In  sickness,  the 
best  physicians  are  called  to  their  bed  sides  and  in  health  they 
are  not  compelled  to  work  as  hard  as  the  day-laborers  of 
your  own  region  You  cannot,  you  do  not  know  how  to  better 
their  condition.  Let  them  alone, until  God  in  His  mercy  to 
the  master  as  well  as  the  slave  shall  point  out  the  way  of  their 
deliverance. 

If  then  even  the  slave  is  to  become  loser  by  your  injudi- 
cious if  not  officious  benevolence,  look  a  little  further  and  see  if 
you  may  not  become  a  loser  yourselves  by  it.  Look  to  the  fol- 
lowing estimates  of  your  annual  profits  growing  out  of  your 
connection  with  the  south;  estimates  founded  on  the  most 
reliable  data  :# 

Freights  of  Northern  shipping  on  Southern  produce,  -  -  #40,186,000 
Profits  derived  on  imports  at  the  North  on  Southern  account,      9,000,000 

Profits  of  exchange  operations, 1,000,000 

Profits  of  Northern  manufactures  sold  at  the  South,  -  -  -  22,250,000 
Profits  of  western  produce  descending  the  Mississippi,  -  -  10,000,000 
Profits  of  Northern  capital  employed  at  the  South,     -    -    -    -    6,000,000 


£88,436,000 


*See  the  January  Number  of  The  Democratic  Review  for  1850. 


ON  THE   PROGRESS  OP   THE  UNITED  STATES,  303 

Eighty-eight  millions  of  profits  annually  poured  into  the  lap  of 
the  north  by  its  connection  with  the  south !  How  much  of  these 
may  you  not  lose,  nay,  must  you  not  lose  by  dissolving  your 
connection  with  us.  With  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  last 
acre  of  the  cotton  growing  region  passed  beneath  the  wing  of 
the  Eagle,  and  changed  for  all  time  to  come  the  destinies  of 
the  southern  States. 

England,  France,  and  the  northern  States,  have  all  become 
competitors  and  rivals  for  her  great  staple,  which  in  the  lan- 
guage of  an  able  and  eloquent  writer  in  one  of  our  periodicals 
has  been  spun  into  a  web  that  binds  the  commercial  world  to 
southern  interests.  The  cotton  growing  experiments  in  India 
have  failed,  the  blundering  emancipation  policy  of  England  in 
her  West  Indies  has  failed,  and  the  southern  States  are  now 
sole  possessors  of  a  staple  on  which  half  the  manufacturing 
and  commercial  interests  of  the  world  depend. 

But  whilst  the  south  is  conscious  of  the  vantage  ground 
which  she  occupies,  she  is  neither  insensible  nor  indifferent  to 
the  great  interests  of  the  north.  She  turns  not  a  spindle,  she 
weaves  not  a  woof,  she  sails  not  a  ship  in  which  the  south  does 
not  feel  that  she  has  a  just  degree  of  national  pride  and  exul- 
tation. Her  navigation  and  manufacturing  interest  can  never 
become  antagonistic  to  the  south.  Antagonism  must  come 
from  England;  the  north  already  manufactures  more  than  half 
a  million  of  our  cotton  bales ;  England  the  greater  portion  of 
the  balance.  Her  proximity  to  the  place  of  production ;  the 
abundance  and  cheapness  of  her  provisions,  and  above  all  her 
fraternal  and  national  connection  with  the  south,  will  enable 
her  to  achieve  successive  victories  over  her  transatlantic  rival, 
at  which  none  will  more  heartily  rejoice  than  her  southern 
brethren. 

But  that  connection  must  be  fraternal.     What  is  the  Union 

worth,  when  the  spirit  of  amity  and  concord  has  departed  from* 

it  ?     This  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  is  so  unfraternal 

that  the  south  has  never  seen  the  day  when  she  would  not 

rather  have  had  a  foreign  enemy  thundering  on  her  border? 

than  to  have  this  slavery  question  under  annual  discussion  in 

Congress.     To  the  north  it  brought  no  danger;  your  families 

were  safely  housed  and  slumbering  in  peace  and  security,  far 
21 


304  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

away  from  the  storm  that  was  howling  in  the  distance.  Not 
so  the  south.  For  the  last  few  years  not  a  fire-bell  has  been 
rung  at  midnight  in  our  cities,  which  did  not  strike  a  pang  to 
the  heart  and  make  the  mother  clasp  the  sleeping  infant  closer 
to  her  bosom. 

I  have  yet  another  question  to.  submit  to  the  north  on  this 
great  subject,  the  counterpart  of  the  question  of  loss  which 
we  have  just  been  considering.  What  do  you  expect  to  gain 
for  yourselves  by  pressing  these  measures  upon  the  south? 
Not  political  power  and  ascendency.  You  have  acquired 
these  already.  That  was  the  high  stake,  for  which  some  of 
your  ambitious  statesmen  have  been  playing  for  nearly  half  a 
century.  I  do  not  say  they  have  had  no  southern  competitors. 
But  the  game  has  been  played  out  and  the  south  has  lost  it. 
The  government  is  yours ;  all  its  vast  patronage  is  yours  ;  the 
President  and  all  the  high  offices  of  State  belong  to  you,  when- 
ever you  choose  to  have  them.  The  south  knows  that  the  scep- 
tre has  departed  from  her ;  nay,  that  she  handed  it  over  to 
you  herself,  when  Virginia  ceded  to  you  with  a  noble  and  pa- 
triotic generosity  her  northwestern  possessions.  Without  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  I  believe  a  portion  of  Michigan,  where 
would  be  now,  and  for  all  time  tacome^the  preponderance  of 
political  power?  The  sun  in  one  entire  revolution  around  this 
earth,  no  where  shines  on  a  finer  region  than  was  freely  sur- 
rendered to  you  by  "  the  mother  of  Presidents  and  of  States." 
It  was  the  gift  of  the  south  to  the  north.  The  magnificence  of 
that  gift,  if  it  shall  generate  no  arrogance  in  the  possessor,  can 
never  bring  regret  to  the  generous  bosom  of  the  muni- 
ficent donor.  If  ambition  and  power  and  patronage  be  no 
longer  the  objects  of  your  pursuit,  what  can  you  expect  to  gain 
by  further  agitations  ?  Nothing.  I  repeat  nothing  but  aliena- 
ted affections;  a  violated  Constitution;  a  broken,  shattered 
Union,  and  with  these  the  taunts  and  jeers  of  exulting  mon- 
archy, and  the  indignant  frowns  of  the  friends  of  liberty  all 
over  the  world.  Dream  not  that  the  odium  of  dissolving  this 
glorious  Union,  still  stretching  like  the  rainbow;  of  hope  and  of 
promise  over  the  continent,  shall  ever  be  cast  on-  the  States  of 
the  south.  That  sh#ll  be  your  work,  not  theirs.  The  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union  is  nothing  but  the  destruction  of  the  Consti- 


ON  THE  PROGRESS   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  305 

tution.  The  destruction  of  the  Constitution  is  completed,  when 
your  measures  of  aggression  are  accomplished.  The  south 
loves  the  Union.  She  will  cling  to  it  to  the  last,  and  when  one 
violation  of  the  Constitution  after  another  shall  have  destroyed 
it,  she  may  well  exclaim,  "  It  was  not  I  that  did  it."  When 
the  great  crisis  shall  come  and  crash  after  crash  shall  announce 
the  downfall  of  the  republic,  the  world  will  be  at  no  loss  to 
know  what  barbarian  hand  struck  the  fatal  blow.  Calm,  erect, 
but  sorrowful,  the  south  will  be  seen  standing  amid  the  ruins, 
holding  to  her  bosom  the  farewell  address  of  the  sainted  Wash- 
ington, and  appealing  to  Heaven  to  attest  her  fidelity  to  its 
sacred  injunctions. 

In  this  dark  hour  of  peril  and  danger,  what  does  it  become 
the  duty  of  the  south  to  do  for  the  preservation  of  her  rights? 
If  the  humblest  of  her  sons  were  permitted  to  advise,  he  would 
say  to  her,  prepare,  by  all  the  means  that  wisdom  can  devise 
and  patriotism  approve,  prepare  for  the  coming  tempest.  Its 
low  mutterings  are  no  longer  to  be  heard  in  the  distance.  It  is 
already  upon  you  and  its  thunders  are  bursting  peal  after 
peal  over  your  head.  Every  gale  that  sweeps  to  you  from  the 
capital,  bears  upon  its  wings  the  news  of  renewed  agita- 
tion and  increasing  excitement.  You  cannot  tell  on  what  day 
nor  in  what  hour  that  glorious  flag  which  waves  over  the  delib- 
erations of  Congress,  the  proud  emblem  of  our  Union  and 
our  power,  may  be  stricken  down,  in  token  that  fanaticism  and 
ambition  have  accomplished  their  work,  and  that  the  days  of 
the  republic  have  been  numbered.  What  then  !  what  then? 
Go  ask  the  sainted  spirit  of  Washington  ;  go  ask  the  genius  of 
Liberty  as  she  stretches  her  wings  to  take  her  everlasting  flight 
from  our  country.  Not  yet,  not  yet — stay  !  stay  !  all  is  not 
lost.  See!  our  noble  flag  again  re -appears  !  Some  bold  and 
patriotic  hand  has  lifted  up  and  restored  it,  and  the  light  of 
hope  is  once  more  beaming  from  the  dome  of  our  capitol. 

Let  us  never  despair  of  the  republic.  God  never  conducted 
our  fathers  through  so  many  trials  and  dangers  ;  he  never  in- 
spired them  to  build  up  so  great  and  so  excellent  a  system  of 
government,  to  permit  their  degenerate  sons  so  soon  to  destroy 
it.  The  north  will  yet  recede ;  a  voice  which  she  has  long 
known  and  so  often  followed,  has  already  proclaimed  that  she 


30G  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

can  and  ought  to  recede.  When  she  shall  further  hear,  as  hear 
she  must,  that  the  south  can  never  submit ;  that  come  what 
may,  she  never  can  and  never  will  submit,  that  her  peace,  her 
safety,  her  honor,  her  very  existence,  all  forbid  it:  when  the 
north  shall  moreover  remember  that  all  the  evils  of  which  she 
complains  were  inherited  by  us  from  her  and  from  our  British 
ancestors,  without  our  consent  and  against  our  earnest  entrea- 
ties, she  must  pause,  she  must  recede.  Let  us  cherish  this 
hope  of  returning  magnanimity  and  justice.  We  have  seen 
the  noble  vessel  of  state  outride  many  a  storm.  Despair 
can  only  increase  her  danger  in  the  present  one.  Let  us  hope 
and  cheer  her  to  the  last. 

"  Thou  too,  sail  on,  O  ship  of  State 

Sail  on,  O  Union  strong  and  great ! 

Humanity  with  all  its  fears, 

With  all  the  hopes  of  future  years, 

Is  hanging  breathless  on  thy  fate  ! 

We  know  what  master  laid  thy  keel, 

What  workman  wrought  thy  ribs  of  steel, 

Who  made  each  mast  and  sail  and  rope, 

What  anvils  rang,  what  hammers  beat, 

In  what  a  forge  and  what  a  heat  , 

Were  shaped  the  anchors  of  thy  hope." 


SPEECH 

Of  Ex-Gov.  Aaron  V.  Brown,  in  the  Second  Session  of  the 
Southern  Convention,  on  the  Resolution  Reported  Saturday, 
November  15th,  1850. 


Mr.  President  . — Since  our  adjournment  in  June  last,  Con- 
gress has  acted  on  all  the  great  and  exciting  subjects  which 
had  called  this  convention  together.  Our  business  now  is,  to  ex- 
amine how  far  that  action  has  been  or  ought  to  be  satisfactory 
to  the  south.  I  have  examined  the  bills,  with  the  strongest 
predisposition  to  be  pleased  and  satisfied  with  them.  I  am 
proud  of  my  country — proud  of  her  institutions — proud  of  her 
brilliant  and  triumphant  career.  I  am,  therefore,  painfully 
anxious  that  nothing  should  occur  to  retard  her  progress  or  to 
obscure  her  bright  and  glorious  future.  But,  sir,  I  have  tried 
in  vain  to  be  convinced  that  the  south  has  received  any 
thing  like  justice  at  the  hands  of  the  north.  In  every  effort  my 
mind  stands  baffled  and  rebuked  in  the  vain  attempt. 

I  begin,  sir,  with  the  admission  of  California.  I  waive  all 
irregularity  in  her  application — all  imputed  Executive  dicta- 
tion— all  doubts  about  the  citizenship  of  those  who  partici- 
pated in  the  formation  of  her  constitution.  Still  I  am  com- 
pelled to  demand,  why  was  she  permitted  to  come  in  with  all 
this  boundless  extent  of  country  ?  It  was  not  necessary  to  her 
people ;  on  the  contrary,  we  know  that  it  was  highly  inconve- 
nient to  them.     Why,  then,  was  it  done  ?     That  man  must  be 


308  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

blind  who  does  not  see,  and  know,  and  feel  that  it  was  done 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  excluding  the  south  forever  from  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  The  north  had  said  that  she  should  be 
excluded.  The  Wilmot  proviso  was  the  infamous  instrument 
selected  for  the  purpose.  The  people  of  California,  forgetting 
for  the  moment  how'much  they  stood  indebted  to  southern  valor 
and  southern  counsels  for  their  very  existence,  let  themselves  to 
the  inglorious  deed.  Congress,  by  rejecting  every  proposition  to 
curtail  her  enormous  boundary,  ratified  and  confirmed  it ;  and 
thus  the  great  work  of  our  exclusion  was  accomplished.  Re- 
member, sir,  I  am  not  complaining  that  California  was  admit- 
ted as  a  State  :  nor  am  I  objecting  to  any  size  and  boundary 
which  the  wants  and  necessities  of  her  people  might  demand. 
My  precise  objection  is,  that  she  was  let  in  with  an  extent  of 
boundary  which  she  did  not  need  and  which  she  did  not  expect 
or  desire  to  retain,  and  which,  in  reality,  she  is  only  holding 
over  against  the  south,  for  the  future  benefit  of  the  freesoil 
States  of  the  north.  Congress  ought  to  have  said,  "  Take  of 
the  common  territory  what  you  need — take  largely  and  freely ; 
but  you  shall  not  take  all."  Now,  sir,  if  Congress  refused  to 
say  this,  with  the  view  of  depriving  the  south  of  her  fair  and 
just  proportion  of  this  common  fund,  the  device,  though  inge- 
nious, was  nevertheless  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

So  much  as  to  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union. 
What  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  embracing  all  the  balance 
of  the  territory  ?  They  have  been  organized  into  territorial 
governments,  but  with  no  clause  repealing  any  laws  or  ordi- 
nances of  Mexico  abolishing  slavery  which  may  be  in  force  in 
them.  For  the  want  of  such  a  clause,  I  maintain  that  they 
are  as  effectually  lost  to  the  south  as  if  they  had  been  sunken 
by  an  earthquake.  If  those  laws  and  ordinances  are  in  force, 
then,  of  course,  they  are  lost.  But  I  maintain  that  if  it  be 
only  doubtful  whether  they  are  in  force  or  not,  that  very  doubt 
is  as  fatal  to  the  south  as  the  Wilmot  proviso.  No  southern 
man  will  dare  to  take  his  property  there  until  that  doubt  is 
removed.  Congress  ought  to  have  removed  it.  Her  own  dis- 
cussions had  started  it,  and  the  master  minds  of  that  body  had 
fixed  and  confirmed  it.     If  her  object  really  was  to  open  those 


ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  COMPROMISE.  309 

countries  equally  and  fairly  to  all  the  citizens  of  all  the  States, 
she  should  have  added  the  following  section  :  "  Be  it  enacted, 
that  ali  laws  and  parts  of  laws  passed  by  Mexico,  which  may 
be  in  force  in  said  territories  in  relation  to  slavery,  be,  and  the 
same  are  hereby  repealed."  Mr.  President,  this  short  but  ex- 
pressive sentence  would  have  at  once  calmed  the  fears  and 
discontents  of  the  south.  The  clouds  which  lowered  so  darkly 
over  her  horizon  would  have  been  dispelled,  and  the  rainbow 
of  hope  and  confidence  would  have  shone  with  renewed  bright- 
ness and  glory.  But  no  :  the  amendment  was  offered  and 
voted  down,  and  the  south  doomed  to  submit — not  to  the  Con- 
stitution, but  to  Mexican  laws  if  they  existed,  or  to  stay  away, 
from  a  well  grounded  apprehension  that  they  might  exist.  Sir, 
that  was  the  fatal  vote  that  prostrated  the  south  in  those  terri- 
tories. She  was  the  equal  of  the  other  States.  She  had  as  much 
right  to  enter  there  with  her  property  as  they  had  with  theirs. 
But  Congress  leaves  an  old  Mexican  ordinance,  or  the  well 
grounded  fear  of  it,  to  do  that  which  Mexican  bayonets 
could  never  do  :  to  drive  every  southern  man  away  from 
the  country. 

And  what  are  the  explanations  and  apologies  for  this  extra- 
ordinary vote  when  given  by  southern  men  ?  It  is  first  alleged 
that  these  Mexican  laws  are  not  in  fact  in  force,  and  then  it  is 
gravely  insisted  that  you  cannot  repeal  what  is  not  in  force! — 
that  you  cannot  repeal  a  nonentity  !  In  passing  a  new  law,  how 
often  does  the  legislator  find  himself  in  doubt  as  to  how  many 
of  the  old  laws  may  be  in  conflict  with  it?  or,  how  often  does  he 
doubt  of  what  the  opinions  of  the  judges  might  be  on  the  sub- 
ject ?  and  how  sure  is  he  in  either  case,  to  give  certainty  and 
force  to  the  new  enactment,  to  declare  "  that  all  laws  and 
parts  of  laws  which  may  be  inconsistent  with  it  shall  be  repeal- 
ed ?"  No  man  can  give  dignity  or  respectability  to  such  a 
sophistry,  and  I  dismiss  it,  in  order  to  notice  another.  It  is  said 
that  such  a  repeal  of  the  Mexican  laws  would  be  equivalent  to 
the  establishment  of  slavery  in  those  territories,  which  Congress 
cannot  and  ought  not  have  done.  What'  to  repeal  "  all  laws 
and  parts  of  laws"  in  relation  to  slavery  equivalent  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  it?  Directly  the  reverse — it  leaves  the  whole 
country,  rasa  tabula,  a  mere  blank— with  nothing  for  or  against 


310  »         CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

slavery.  What  then  ?  Why,  it  must  remain  forever  unestab- 
lished,  unless  Congress  shall  interfere  and  establish  it.  This 
is  forbidden  by  the  great  doctrine  of  non-intervention.  What 
then  ?  It  must  remain  so  unestablished  until  the  territorial 
legislatures  establish  it.  The  universal  opinion  has  been  (at 
least  until  very  lately,)  that  territorial  legislatures  had  no  such 
power.  What,  then,  becomes  of  slavery  in  these  territories,  the 
common  property  of  the  States,  during  the  interval  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Mexican  laws  and  the  time  when  they  form  a  State  Con- 
stitution, preparatory  to  admission  into  the  Union  ?  During  all 
this  time  the  country  is  a  mere  blank,  with  nothing  for  or  against 
its  establishment.  It  is  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  alone.  If  that  will  protect  the  southern  man's 
property  there,  he  is  content.  If  it  will  not,  he  is  content.  He 
invokes  no  intervention  of  Congress,  save  to  set  aside  the  pre- 
vious intervention  of  Mexico.  When  that  is  done  he  has  an 
open  field  and  a  fair  chance  under  the  Constitution. 

But,  sir,  another  argument  is  made,  that  the  doctrine  of  non- 
intervention forbade  this  repeal  of  the  Mexican  laws  and  or- 
dinances. I  pretend  to  understand  something  of  this  doctrine. 
I  have  borne  its  banner  through  three  hard  fought  politicial 
wars.  I  have  unfurled  it  in  every  valley  and  planted  it  on 
nearly  every  mountain  top  of  Tennessee.  What  was  that 
doctrine  ?  Non-intervention  by  anybody  and  every  body — 
between  the  people  and  their  right  to  settle  the  question  of 
slavery  when  forming  their  State  Constitution.  Non-interven- 
tion by  Congress,  non-intervention  by  Mexico,  non-interven- 
tion by  any  body  and  every  body — that  was  the  Polk,  the  Cass, 
the  democratic  doctrine,  if  you  please.  What  an  absurdity  ! 
To  hold  on  with  a  death-grasp  to  non-intervention  by  Congress, 
and  at  the  same  moment  to  advocate  intervention  by  Mexico  ! 
Intervention  by  Mexico  cleaves  your  rights  to  the  earth,  as 
certainly  as  intervention  by  Congress.  Why  all  this  clamor 
against  the  Wilmot  proviso  ?  Why  this  bold  and  daring  de- 
claration that  you  would  resist  that  at  all  hazards  and  to  the 
last  extremity,  if,  after  all,  these  old  Mexican  ordinances  were 
to  remain  unrepealed,  the  only  things  which  American  valor 
could  not  subdue  in  Mexico  ! 

Mr.  Clay,  Gen.  Cass,  Mr.  Webster,  and  many  others  whose 


ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  COMPROMISE.        311 

names  may  well  stand  in  proud  association  with  theirs,  long 
since  told  you  that  these  ordinances  were  in  force.  If  you 
did  not  mean  to  open  that  country  to  the  south,  by  repealing 
them,  why  did  you  not  surrender  at  once  and  say  that  the 
south  never  could  and  never  ought  to  get  any  portion  of  it  ? 
Sir,  I  put  the  question  to  this  convention,  I  put  it  to  the  good 
sense  of  mankind,  whether  great  Constitutional  rights  ought 
ever  to  he  sacrificed  by  holding  to  a  mere  abridgement  of  the 
doctrine  of  non-intervention,  too  narrow  and  contracted  for 
their  protection  ? 

Mr.  President :  In  the  progress  of  this  dispute  about  our 
territorial  possessions,  we  have  lost  too  much,  by  not  better  un- 
derstanding this  doctrine  of  non-intervention.  At  our  last 
session  we  maintained  this  doctrine  in  its  fullest,  broadest 
sense.  In  ten  resolutions  we  maintained  it — maintained  it 
as  to  the  whole  country.  But,  sir,  after  exhausting  every 
argument  and  making  every  appeal  to  our  northern  brethren 
to  allow  us  the  full  benefit  of  it,  we  turned  to  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  painful  fact,  whose  bitter  realization  we  have 
since  experienced — to  the  fact  that  there  was  little  or  no  pro- 
bability that  our  rights  would  be  fully  recognized.  Under  the 
full  belief  that  they  would  not,  we  planted  ourselves  on  the 
former  compromises  which  had  been  made  in  critical  periods 
of  our  history.  Sir,  we  were  unanimous  in  favor  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise  line — not  one  discordant  voice  was  heard 
through  the  spacious  hall  of  our  deliberations.  If  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  had  responded  favorably  to  that 
voice,  all  would  now  have  been  well  with  the  Republic.  Cali- 
fornia would  have  been  in  the  Union,  but  with  her  southern 
boundary  on  thirty-six  degrees,  thirty  minutes.  She  would 
then  have  been  larger  than  Virginia,  New  York,  or  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  remaining  country  would  have  been  organized 
into  territorial  governments,  without  saying  a  word  about 
slavery — neither  admitting  it  nor  rejecting  it;  but  with  a  re- 
pealing clause  of  laws  which  might  be  in  force  there  abolishing 
slavery.  Thus  the  south  and  the  north  would  have  been 
thrown  on  an  equal  footing,  leaving  it  to  the  Constitution — not 
to  Congress — not  to  the  laws  of  Mexico — to  say  whether 
slaves  should  be  carried  there  or  not.     Ah,  if  this  had  been 


312  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

done,  what  contentedness  and  peace  would  have  then  pervaded 
our  once  happy  country  !  Then,  indeed,  we  could  have  re- 
joiced and  started  afresh  in  the  career  of  national  greatness 
and  glory.  But,  sir,  it  was  rejected,  and  the  strange  story  is 
now  told  us,  that  it  was  anti-republican !  Anti-republican  to 
abide  by  the  Missouri  compromise  !  by  the  Oregon  compro- 
mise !  by  the  Texas  compromise  !  Take  back  the  incredible 
charge.  The  last  message  of  James  K.  Polk  to  his  country- 
men, just  before  he  went  down  to  the  tomb,  implored  them  to 
settle  this  question  on  the  principles  of  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise. Take  back  the  charge  that  he  was  no  republican. 
When  Texas  was  admitted  on  the  compromise  line  of  thirty- 
six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  Andrew  Jackson  was  still  living, 
and  his  heart  rejoiced  to  see  the  noble  work  accomplished. 
Take  back  the  charge  that  Andrew  Jackson  was  no  republi- 
can. Take  back  the  charge  against  the  hundreds,  and  thou- 
sands, and  tens  of  thousands,  who  voted  for  thirty-six  thirty 
in  voting  for  her  admission  into  the  Union.  Take  it  back,  or 
strifle  your  shout  for  Polk  and  Dallas,  and  tear  down  from 
your  banner  the  lone  star  of  Texas* 

It  is  sometimes  declared  to  be  unconstitutional.  It  was  not 
proposed  as  an  ordinary  act  of  Congress  but  as  a  compromise 
— a  compromise  of  a  disputed  question  of  constitutional  con- 
struction. Now,  why  cannot  a  disputed  construction  of  the 
Constitution  be  compromised  as  well  as  any  other  ?  Every 
other  question,  it  seems,  can  be  compromised.  Even  an  om- 
nibus-full of  all  sorts  of  compromises  will  do.  Yet  the  Mis- 
souri compromise  and  the  Texas  compromise  will  not  do  at 
all.  And  why  were  they  unconstitutional  ?  Because,  it  is 
said,  they  allowed  of  the  intervention  of  Congress  north  of 
that  line.  No,  that  was  not  the  compromise.  The  original 
demand  of  the  north  was,  that  Congress  should  intervene  and 
exclude  slavery  from  the  whole  country  north  and  south  of 
thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes.  Now,  the  compromise  was, 
that  Congress  should  forbear  that  intervention  or  exclusion  of 
slavery,  and  leave  a  part  of  it  for  the  south— that  part  was 
south  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes  :  that  was  the  true 
nature  of  all  these  compromises !  Now,  was  it  unconstitutional 
for  us  to  save  a  part  when  we  were  otherwise  to  lose  the  whole 


O*  THE  PASSAGE  OF~THTT  GOMFROMISE*  313 

country  ?  Well,  now,  after  all,  let  us  look  to  results.  Con- 
gress rejected  our  Missouri  compromise,  and  passed  its  own 
bills  in  lieu  of  it.  Which  was  best  for  the  south  ?  Ours  would 
have  saved  one-third  or  more— your  bills  have  lost  all — every 
square  acre  of  it.  What  equivalent,  let  me  now  demand,  has 
the  south  received  Under  these  bills  for  the  loss  and  surrender 
of  these  vast  possessions?  For  California,  the  key  that  com- 
mands all  the  amazing  commerce  of  the  Indies  ?  The  fugitive 
slave  bill !  For  Utah  and  New  Mexico  ?  The  fugitive  slave 
bill !  What  for  the  loss  of  nearly  two  States  proposed  to  be 
carved  out  of  Texas  ?  The  fugitive  slave  bill !  Truly  this 
fugitive  slave  bill  must  be  something  new  and  miraculous.  No. 
It  is  not  new — for  it  is  only  the  act  of  '93  a  little  amended  and 
enlarged;  and  the  act  of  '93  was  nothing  but  a  meagre  com- 
pliance with  an  express  provision  of  the  Constitution.  But, 
if  not  new,  surely  it  must  restore  vast  numbers  of  fugitive 
slaves  to  their  masters,  in  compensation  for  the  loss  of  so 
much  land !  Restoration !  I  believe  it  is  rather  the  other 
way.  Instead  of  coming  home,  I  believe  they  are  getting 
further  off — scampering  away  in  great  droves  to  Canada  !  But 
to  be  serious,  what  a  pass  has  the  country  come  to,  when  one 
half  of  it  has  to  bribe  the  other,  simply  to  do  its  duty  under 
the  Constitution !  The  south  to  give  up  its  half  of  the  coun- 
tries acquired  from  Mexico,  in  order  to  induce  the  north  to 
surrender  our  fugitives  from  labor  !  What  a  commentary  on 
the  fraternal,  Constitution-abiding  spirit  of  the  north  !  But, 
it  seems  that  after  giving  up  all  our  interest  in  the  Mexican  ter- 
ritories, even  then,  they  are  not  willing  to  surrender  our  slaves. 
They  seem  determined  to  take  our  lands  and  keep  our  ne- 
groes  too  ! 

But,  I  admit  these  territories  have  not  been  lost  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  Wilmot  proviso.  That  was  one  of  her  ad- 
vanced or  outer  works  which  the  north  concluded  to  abandon, 
because  the  south,  the  whole  south,  had  vowed  they  should  be 
carried,  at  all  hazards  and  to  the  last  extremity.  With  an  adroit- 
ness which  has  distinguished  all  her  movements  on  these  slav- 
ry  questions,  she  retired  from  the  Wilmot  and  entrenched  her- 
self behind  the  Mexican  fortress ;  and  the  south  either  had  not 
the  courage  to  attack  her  there,  or  vainly  imagined  that  she 


314  CONGRESSIONAL   ANL>  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

had  retreated  from  the  field  and  given  up  the  contest.  No,  sir, 
she  has  not  retreated — there  she  stood  undislodged,  and  there 
she  yet  stands,  sole  mistress  of  every  province.  California  is 
hers — Utah  is  hers — New  Mexico  is  hers : — all  the  flocks  and 
herds  in  their  teeming  valleys — the  gold  that  glitters  in  their 
rivers — the  diamonds  that  sparkle  in  their  mountains — must 
now  be  hers,  and  the  poor  deluded  and  defrauded  south  has 
nothing  left  but  the  sad  rememberance  that  this  mighty  domain 
was  subdued  by  the  valor  of  her  gallant  but  now  rejected  peo- 
ple. Even  the  graves  of  those  who  died  in  the  conflict  are  no 
longer  ours — they  have  passed  over  into  the  possession  of  those 
who  felt  no  sympathy  in  their  fall,  and  who  will  never  deck 
the  green  sod  that  now  covers  them.  Pardon  me,  sir,  for  so 
often  referring  to  our  exclusion.  I  wish  that  great  fact  to 
stand  out  in  bold  relief,  like  the  summit  of  some  lofty  mountain 
overpeering  all  others,  that  the  south  has  been  excluded — 
driven  out  from  it.  The  north  said  she  should  be,  and  she  has 
been,  and  there  is  the  end  of  it. 

And  is  it  for  this  that  we  have  been  called  upon  to  rejoice ! 
To  kindle  bonfires  in  the  streets  !  Was  it  for  this  that  the 
booming  of  cannon  has  been  heard  amid  the  stillness  of  mid- 
night !  Sir,  let  others  rejoice  if  they  can ;  let  them  sound  the 
trumpet  and  ring  the  belb ;  let  them  make  the  hoarse  artillery 
to  speak ;  but,  for  my  single  self,  I  cannot  rejoice.  My 
heart  is  too  sad  and  sorrowful.  It  would  break  sooner  than 
rejoice. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  another  thing  this  heart  of  mine  will 
never  do.  It  will  never  grow  cold  towards  those  southern 
friends  who  may  have  felt  it  their  duty  to  vote  for  any  of  those 
territorial  bills,  which  I  have  disapproved.  I  know  too  well 
their  devotion  to  the  Constitution — to  the  Union — to  the  south. 
They  have  done  what  they  believed  to  be  best  under  all  the 
trying  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  I  hail  and  welcome 
them  home,  with  unabated  confidence  and  friendship.  Com- 
pelled to  cast  their  votes  amid  the  fire,  and  smoke,  and  suf- 
focation of  a  wild  fanaticism  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  most 
vehement  threats  to  dissolve  the  Union  if  something  was  not 
done,  on  the  other,  what  wonder  were  it  if  all  their  votes 
should  not  have  been  cast  precisely  right,  in  the   emergency 


ON  THE   PASSAGE  OF  THE  COMPROMISE.  315 

of  the  moment !     We  are  now  examining  their  measures  af- 
ter the  smoke  of  the  conflict  has  dispersed,  and  as  no  man  knows 
what  votes  he  might  not  have  cast,  in  order  to  secure  the  unity 
of  this  great    nation,    when  he  believed  it    was  in  danger, 
so  let    no  man  yield  himself  up    to  the  foul  spirit    of  intoler- 
ance.    Besides,  sir,  this  fatal  war  on    our  rights  has  only  just 
begun.     The  enemy   has  only  carried   our    outposts.     They 
have  drawn  a  cordon   of  non-slaveholding  States   around  us 
by  the  late  bills,  and  are  now  only  waiting  for  the  new  appor- 
tionment to  give  them  an  increase  of  strength,  and  for  the  ar- 
rival of  their  new  levies  from  California,  Utah  and  New  Mexico, 
to  make  a  fresh  onslought  upon  us — on  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  States — in  the  District  of  Columbia — in  the  forts,  arse- 
nals, &c.  of  the  United  States — the  prohibition  of  the  transfer 
of  slaves  from  one  State  to  another.     When  that  time  shall 
come,  we  shall  need  that  there  should  be  no  estrangement 
among  the  men  of  the  south.     "  Shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  with 
shield  locked  on  shield,"  we  must  then  stand  or  fall  together. 
Till  then  let  no  division  of  opinion  make  divisions  in  friendship. 
There  is  yet  another  thing  this  heart  of  mine  will  not  do. 
For  nothing  in  the  past,  great  as  have  been  our  wrongs,  will 
it  beat  one  pulse  the  less  of  ardent  devotion  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union.     My  motto  now  is,  endurance  of  the  past,  re- 
sistance for  the  future.     The  past  can  be  endured.     Though 
it  demand  all  the  forgiveness  of  the  Christian,  and  all  the  for- 
bearance of  the  patriot,  it  nevertheless  can  be  endured.     The 
future,  I  awfully  fear,  cannot.     When  you  shall  hear  that  the 
most  solemn  covenants  of  the  Constitution  are  broken  by  law- 
less mobs,  and  your  fellow-citizens  imprisoned  for  demanding 
the  restoration  of  their  property — demanding  it  too,  with  the  late 
fugitive  slave  bill  in  the  one  hand,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  the  other — when  you  shall  see  the  beacon 
fires  blazing  all  along  the  mountain  border  of  Maryland  and 
Virginia — all  along  the  shores  of  the  Ohio — as  signals  for  the 
flight  and  escape  of  your  property — when  military  detach- 
ments shall  have  to  be  sent,  night  after  night,  to  the  protec- 
tion of  your  homes  and  your  families — when  every  fire-bell  at 
night  will  make  the  mother  clasp  her  infant  closer  to  her  bo- 
som— how  can  you  endure  this,  and  more  than  this  ?    In  such 


316  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

a  future,  who  then  can  talk  of  a  Constitution  with  its  violated 
covenants,  or  of  a  Union  with  all  its  shattered  fragments  strewn 
around  us  !  The  great  law  of  self-defence  will  then  be  all  that 
is  left  us.  It  is  the  law  by  which  even  the  reptile  resists  the 
invader.  Under  that  law,  whether  to  be  found  in  the  reserved 
rights  of  the  States  under  the  Constitution,  or  in  the  admitted 
right  of  revolution,  I  care  not — under  that  law  of  self-preser- 
vation, the  States  will  have  to  fall  back  upon  their  full  original 
sovereignty,  and  provide  again  "  for  the  enjoyment  of  life, 
liberty,  and  property."  God  grant,  however,  that  the  dark  fu- 
ture which  I  have  portrayed  may  never  come.  On  the  con- 
trary, may  it  come  to  us  crowned  with  peace  and  fraternal  con- 
cord ;  may  it  come  with  the  Constitution  still  unbroken,  and 
the  Union,  with  adamantine  strength,  still  bespanning  the  con- 
tinent, from  ocean  to  ocean,  brighter  and  more  glorious  than 
ever.  To  such  a  Union  I  owe  a  perfect  and  perpetual  obedi- 
ence— to  such  a  one  I  will  adhere,  and  adhere  to  the  last,  like 
the  gallant  sailor,  when  about  to  be  driven  from  the  vessel 
which  he  had  long  defended,  when  he  had  been  driven  over 
the  very  side  of  his  ship,  he  seized  it  with  his  right  hand,  when 
that  had  been  cut  off  he  seized  it  with  the  left,  when  that  had 
been  cut  off  he  seized  it  with  his  teeth,  and  so  went  down  with 
it  to  the  bottom.  Sir,  I  say  this  of  that  Union  which  now  is — 
of  that  Union  which  Washington,  and  Madison,  and  Pinckney, 
and  the  Rutledges  gave  us.  But  to  that  Union  which  may  be 
yet  to  come — to  that  Union  which  would  deprive  me  of  my 
property,  which  would  beggar  my  children,  which  would  fire 
my  dwelling,  and  spread  around  me  all  the  horrors  of  a  servile 
war — to  a  Union  which  would  deluge  "  my  own,  my  native 
land"  in  one  vast  sea  of  blood — by  Heavens,  I  owe  it  no 
allegiance ! 

Sir,  it  was  upon  this  great  principle  that  the  Tennessee  reso- 
lutions were  constructed  :  That  we  will  abide  by  the  past — by 
the  late  legislation  in  Congress — with  that  fidelity  which  has 
always  distinguished  the  south.  But,  at  the  same  time,  we 
solemnly  affirm  that  our  cup  is  full — we  can  drink  no  more. 
"Will  those  who  propose  not  to  abide  by  the  past,  but  to  strike, 
and  to  strike  now,  will  they  hear  from  me  one  argument  against 
this  rash  and  perilous  deed?     Who  are  here?     Call  Mary- 


ON  THE  PASSAGE  OP  THE  COMPROMISE.  3-17 

land,  Call  North  Carolina,  call  Missouri,  call  Arkansas,  call 
Louisiana,  call  Kentucky.  Do  they  answer?  No,  not  one 
of  them.  Who,  then,  are  here  ?  Virginia  answers  with  one 
lone  solitary  voice.  Virginia,  whose  trumpet  notes  have  so 
often  called  the  sons  of  the  south  together  against  all  and 
every  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  the  States.  Where  are 
all  her  mighty  men,  that  they  do  not  come  up  to  the  great  work 
which  you  propose  to  do  ?  Look  too,  to  the  falling  off  of  that 
crowd  of  patriotic  men  who  thronged  these  halls  even  at  your 
last  session!  From  Alabama,  where  is  Campbell,  and  Cole- 
man, and  Davis,  and  Cooper,  and  Winston  ?  From  Missis- 
sippi, where  is  Mathews,  and  Boyd,  and  Sharkey,  and  Clayton, 
and  Wilkinson? 

Sir,  there  must  be  some  good  reason  for  all  this.  Let  us 
look  facts  directly  in  the  face,  and  they  will  tell  us  that  since 
our  last  meeting  great  doubts  have  arisen  in  the  minds  of  our 
southern  brethren,  as  to  whether  the  late  legislation  of  Con- 
gress has  not  been  such  as  ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  south ; 
at  least,  so  satisfactory  as  to  supersede  any  further  action 
of  this  body.  Sir,  we  do  know  that  these  doubts  do  exist. 
Look  to  your  own  State — look  to  Mississippi — look  to  the  ac- 
counts from  Louisiana.  What  do  we  find  ?  I  pray  you  an- 
swer me  the  question:  what  do  we  find?  Our  own  southern 
people  divided  about  equally  on  the  subject.  Here  I  pause, 
to  ask  of  every  man  who  now  surrounds  me,  is  it  wise,  is  it 
just,  in  such  a  divided  and  distracted  condition  of  the  southern 
mind,  to  venture  on  so  bold  a  measure  ?  And  is  it  not  a  bold 
measure  to  proclaim  that  the  deep  foundations  of  this  govern- 
ment are  to  be  broken  up  and  a  new  one  to  be  erected  on  its 
ruins  !  Let  me  tell  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  (Gen.  Gordon) 
that  when  the  news  shall  reach  that  ancient  commonwealth,  it 
will  shake  the  very  walls  of  her  capitol,  and  the  statue  of 
Washington  will  tremble  on  its  marble  basement.  When  this 
great  nation  shall  be  passing  through  the  agonies  of  dissolu- 
tion, her  dying  groans  will  be  heard  through  half  the  habitable 
world.  Her  fall,  like  that  of  Jerusalem,  will  be  preceded  by 
signs  in  the  heavens  and  commotions  on  the  earth ;  a  sword 
will  be  seen  in  the  sky,  a  great  comet  will  blaze  over  her,  and 
armies  in  battle  array  will  be  seen  amid  the  clouds.    On  earth 


318  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

you  will  hear  and  feel  the  earthquake  tread  of  a  mighty  peo- 
ple, coming  up  to  a  larger  council  than  this.  Un|il  we  see 
this  latter  sign,  at  least,  let  us  not  proclaim  that  her  end  draw- 
eth  nigh  In  the  spirit  of  the  Tennessee  resolutions,  let  us 
rather  proclaim  :  Not  yet !  not  yet ! — no  never  shall  this  re- 
public end  until  the  sovereign  people  who  created  it,  in  one 
one  grand  united  council,  shall  pronounce  its  doom. 


TENNESSEE  RESOLUTIONS. 


In  Convention,  Nov.  13,  1850. 

Gen.  Pillow,  of  Tennessee,  offered  the  following  preamble 
and  resolutions,  which  were  read  and  referred: 

Whereas,  since  the  adjournment  of  this  convention,  in  June 
last,  bills  have  been  passed  into  laws  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  for  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union 
as  a  State,  for  the  settlement  and  adjustment  of  the  boundaries 
of  Texas,  and  for  organizing  territorial  governments  for  Utah 
and  New  Mexico ;  also  bills  abolishing  the  slave  trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  for  the  recovery  of  fugitives  from 
labor ;  with  the  view  of  making  known  our  opinions  on  these 
bills,  and  the  steps  to  be  taken  by  the  South  upon  them,  there- 
fore— 

1.  Resolved,  That  although  said  bills  fall  short  of  that  measure  of  justice 
to  which  the  South,  in  our  opinion,  is  fairly  entitled,  yet  as  the  same  have 
become  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  highest  proof 
of  our  attachment  and  devotion  to  the  Union,  this  convention  hereby  de- 
clares its  willingness  to  abide  by  them  with  that  fidelity  which  has  distin- 
guished the  South  on  all  former  occasions. 

2.  Resolved,  That  this  determination  to  abide  by  the  late  legislation  of 
Congress  aforesaid,  is  predicated  on  the  express  condition  that  the  North 
shall  faithfully  carry  it  out  on  her  part,  according  to  the  spirit  and  true 
meaning  of  the  same. 

a.  Resolved,  That  this  convention  does  distinctly  understand,  that  accord- 
ing to  the  spirit  and  true  meaning  of  said  legislation,  it  embraces  all  the 
action  which  the  North  proposes  to  take  in  relation  to  slavery,  and  that  in 
addition  to  the  subjects  expressly  provided  for  in  said  bills,  no  attempt  will 
hereafter  be  made  by  the  northern  people  to  deprive  the  South  of  the  repre- 
sentation secured  to  her  in  the  Constitution,  or  to  abolish,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  or  in  the  States,  nor  to  prevent 

22 


320  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

the  transportation  of  slaves  from  one  slaveholding  State  to  another  by  their 
lawful  owners,  nor  to  prevent  the  admission  of  any  new  State  on  account 
of  the  toleration  of  slavery  in  its  constitution. 

4.  Resolved,  That  in  view  of  the  sacrifices  to  which  the  southern  States 
have  heretofore  submitted,  and  to  which  they  are  further  subjected  by  agree- 
ing to  abide  by  the  bills  lately  passed  by  Congress,  they  have  a  right  to  de- 
mand, and  do  demand,  that  all  agitations  and  aggressions  on  the  part  of  the 
North  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  shall  instantly  cease  ;  and  that  the  re- 
peal of  the  fugitive  slave  bill,  or  any  alteration  of  it  which  may  render  it 
less  effectual  in  its  objects,  must  of  necessity  render  all  further  association 
as  friends  and  brethren  utterly  impossible. 

5.  Resolved,  That  if  the  people  of  the  northern  States,  by  voluntary  as- 
sociations or  otherwise,  shall  continue  to  obstruct  and  prevent  the  execution 
of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  thereby  depriving  southern  citizens  of  their  pro- 
perty and  giving  encouragement  to  other  slaves  to  escape  from  service  ;  or 
if  they  shall  commence  a  system  of  agitation  with  the  view  and  obvious 
purpose  of  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  or  in  the 
States,  or  of  depriving  the  South  of  the  representation  of  three-fifths  of 
her  slaves  to  which  she  is  now  entitled  under  the  constitution  ;  or  of 
prohibiting  the  transportation  of  slaves  from  one  slave  State  to  another ; 
or  of  excluding  from  the  Union  any  new  State  on  account  of  the  tol- 
eration of  slavery  in  its  Constitution,  then  this  convention  earnestly 
recommends  to  the  people  of  the  South  to  resort  to  the  most  rigid 
system  of  commercial  non-intercourse  with  all  such  States,  communities, 
and  cities,  as  shall  be  found  so  offending  against  their  constitutional  rights. 
For  this  purpose,  we  earnestly  invite  the  Legislature  of  every  Southern 
State  to  unite  with  us  in  this  recommendation  ;  and  that  in  every  State 
and  county,  and  town,  and  neighborhood,  resolutions  may  be  adopted  not 
to  purchase  or  use,  as  far  as  practicable,  any  article  whatever  known  to 
have  been  produced  or  manufactured  in  any  such  State,  community,  or  city, 
or  to  have  been  imported  into  the  same  for  sale.  In  further  aid  of  this 
object,  we  earnestly  recommend  to  the  southern  States,  and  their  people 
to  encourage,  by  all  the  means  in  their  power,  their  own  mechanics  and 
manufacturers  of  every  description — to  push  forward  all  their  railroads  and 
other  internal  improvements  connectiug  them  with  their  best  exporting  and 
importing  cities  on  the  Gulf  and  on  the  Atlantic.  We  make  these  recom- 
mendations in  no  spirit  of  revenge,  but  as  a  just  and  necessary  means  of 
self-defence,  to  be  persisted  in  only  until  the  rights  secured  to  us  by  the 
constitution  shall  be  respected. 

6.  Resolved,  That  if,  contrary  to  our  understanding  of  the  several  bills 
aforesaid,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  shall  at  any  time  repeal  or  so 
alter  or  amend  the  fugitive  slave  law  as  to  render  it  less  efficacious  than  it 
now  is,  or  if  it  shall  pass  any  bill  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, or  abolish  it  directly  or  indirectly  in  the  States,  or  if  the  present  basis 
of  slave  representation  as  secured  in  the  constitution  be  obliterated,  or  if  the 


ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  COMPROMISE.  321 

transportation  of  slaves  from  one  slaveholding  State  to  another  be  prohib- 
ited, or  if  slavery  in  our  present  territories  shall  be  prohibited — in  either  of 
these  events  this  convention  earnestly  recommends  that  the  Legislature 
of  each  southern  State  be  forthwith  convened,  for  the  purpose  of  calling  a 
convention  in  each  State,  and  that  delegates  to  be  appointed  in  such  manner 
as  shall  be  determined  on  by  said  conventions,  may  meet  at  such  time  and 
place  as  may  be  agreed  on,  with  full  power  and  authority  to  do  any  thing 
and  every  thing  which  the  peace,  safety,  and  honor  of  the  South  may 
demand. 


NOTE. 


Wishing'  to  preserve  the  leading  facts  in  relation  to  the 
Tennessee  resolutions,  reported  by  Gen.  Pillow  to  the  South- 
ern Convention,  we  have  enquired  and  found  them  substan- 
tially as  follows  r 

On  Monday,  11th  November,  1850,  the  Tennessee  delegates  met  at  Mr. 
Southall's  office  in  Nashville.  Maj.  Wm.  H.  Polk  moved  that  Gov.  Brown 
and  Mr.  Nicholson  be  appointed  to  prepare  and  present  resolutions,  such  as 
they  might  deem  it  proper  for  the  delegation  to  present  to  the  convention. 

On  Tuesday  morning,  Gov.  Brown  and  Mr.  Nicholson  met  at  the  room  of 
the  latter,  in  the  Nashville  Inn.  Gov.  Brown  presented  a  series  of  resolutions 
which  he  had  drawn  up,  and  read  them  over.  Mr.  Nicholson  desired  the 
word  "  far"  to  be  stricken  from  the  first  resolution,  so  that  it  might  read,  "al- 
though said  bills  fall  short  of  that  measure  of  justice,"  &c,  stating  that  there 
were  different  shades  of  opinion  in  the  State  as  to  the  degree  which  the  bills 
fell  short ;  and  so  to  harmonize  conflicting  opinions  as  far  as  possible,  he  moved 
to  strike  out  the  word  "  far,"  to  which  Gov.  Brown  assented,  and  the  same 
was  stricken  out  accordingly. 

On  Wednesday,  the  resolutions  were  reported  by  Mr.  Nicholson,  but  read 
by  Gov.  Brown,  as  they  were  in  his  handwriting.  On  motion  of  Mr.  F. 
McGavock,  and  after  some  discussion,  in  which  Mr.  Claiborne,  Maj.  Folk,  Mr. 
Stevenson,  Gen.  Hardin,  Mr.  McLaurin,  Mr.  Southall  and  others,  took  part, 
the  following  words  in  the  first  resolution  were  stricken  out,  to  wit :  "  and 
because  the  same  are  presented  to  us  as  a  compromise  and  come  recom- 
mended to  us  by  the  sanction  of  so*  many  southern  votes.1'  After  some  other 
slight  and  rather  verbal  amendments,  the  same  were  adopted  and  ordered 
to  be  reported  by  General  Pillow,  there  chaipman. 

Editors  of  ibe  American, 


ADDRESS 


Of  Ex-Gov.    Aaron    V.  Brown,   to  the  public,  previous  to  the 
Meeting  of  the  Southern  Convention. 


We  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  our  readers  to-day  with  an  eloquent  and 
patriotic  letter  from  Ex-Gov.  A.  V.  Brown,  on  the  exciting  question  of  the 
day.  Coining  from  one  whom  the  Democracy  of  the  State  have  long  de- 
lighted to  honor,  it  will  exercise  an  important  influence  throughout  the 
State.  Though  mild  and  temperate,  it  is  yet  a  firm  and  dignified  defence  of 
the  motives  of  the  friends  of  the  Southern  Convention,  and  we  believe 
that  it  very  nearly  expresses  the  views  of  the  advocates  of  the  Conven- 
tion in  this  State.  We  commend  it  especially  to  the  perusal  of  our  whig 
friends,  and  of  all  those  who  talk  of  "  disunion"  as  the  motive  of  the 
Convention  : — Nashville  Union,. 

Near  Nashville,  April  10,  1850. 
Mr.  E.  G.  Eastman — Sir :  I  noticed  in  one  of  the  whig 
papers  of  your  city,  during  my  recent  visit  to  the  south,  that 
in  advocating  the  appointment  of  delegates  to  the  Nashville 
convention  and  in  vindicating  the  purposes  and  objects  of  that 
convention,  you  were  charged  with  acting  in  advance  of  the 
old  and  experienced  members  of  your  party ;  and  amongst 
such,  my  name  was  introduced  in  a  manner  calculated  to 
make  the  impression  that  I  was  not  in  favor  of  the  conven- 
tion. I  shall  be  compelled  to  be  again  absent  from  the  State 
for  the  next  month,  and  can  therefore  take  no  part  in  any  pub- 
lic discussions  which  may  take  place  between  the  present  time 
and  the  period  (first  Monday  in  May)  designated  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  county  delegates  to  attend  said  convention. 
Unwilling  to  leave  this  rebuke  of  your  course  unnoticed,  and 


324  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

unwilling  to  be  absent  during  the  animated  discussions  now 
going  on  in  relation  to  said  convention,  without  leaving  the 
most  unmistakable  evidence  of  my  opinions  behind  me,  for 
the  consideration  of  all  persons  who  may  feel  any  interest  in 
knowing  them,  I  have  concluded  to  address  you  this  letter. 

I  know  nothing  more  of  the  objects  and  purposes  of  calling 
said  convention,  than  I  have  learned  through  the  public  press, 
detailing  the  proceedings  of  State  conventions,  the  resolutions 
of  State  legislatures,  and  of  primary  assemblies  of  the  peo- 
ple who  have  acted  on  this  subject.  All  these,  with  no  remem- 
bered exception,  announce  the  objects  and  purposes  of  the 
convention  to  be  eminently  patriotic  and  entirely  consistent 
with  the  preservation  and  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  Not  one 
of  them  avows  or  intimates  the  slightest  purpose  of  dissolving 
it.  In  the  face  of  avowed  good  objects  I  will  not  presume  bad 
ones  against  the  men  already  appointed  and  who  are  coming 
up  to  Nashville  from  the  fifteen  States  of  the  South,  an  equal 
number  from  both  political  parties,  and  who  have  given  evi- 
dence of  the  highest  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  Take,  for  illustration  sake,  Chief  Justice  Sharkey  of 
Mississippi.  He  presided  over  the  first  convention  that  was 
held,  and  is,  I  understand,  coming  up  with  Judge  Guion,  and 
other  whigs,  to  the  convention.  Now,  would  it  be  at  all  right 
or  proper  in  me  to  set  aside  their  distinct  and  clear  annuncia- 
tion of  their  motives  in  coming,  and  presume  against  them  the 
darkest  and  blackest  crime  which  an  American  can  possibly 
commit  ?  So  I  might  enumerate  the  names  of  eminent  whigs 
from  other  States,  who  have  led  the  vanguard  of  their  party  at 
home,  in  many  a  hard  fought  battle,  and  who  are  coming  up 
to  Nashville  covered  with  the  scars  of  party  warfare  ;  wounds 
and  scars  received  when  some  of  those  who  now  assail  their 
motives  and  their  honor,  were  but  puling  infants  in  their 
cradles.  Can  I  do  these  men,  although  differing  from  them 
as  I  do  in  politics,  the  crying  injustice  which  some  of  their  own 
party  editors  are  doing  in  this  State — of  denouncing  them,  in 
advance,  against  their  own  express  declarations  on  mere  sus- 
picion, as  traitors  and  disunionists  ?  I  cannot,  and  will  not 
perpetrate  such  an  outrage  against  either  the  whigs  or  demo- 
crats who  have  been  or  may  be  appointed  to  said  convention. 


ADDRESS  TO  TEE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  325 

I  will  presume  their  motives  and  purposes  to  be  such  as  they 
declare  them  to  be,  until  they  shall  assemble,  and  by  some  un- 
patriotic act  prove  to  the  contrary.  This  is  the  rule  of  law  and 
of  the  public  press  with  regard  to  every  accused  felon,  the 
highwayman  and  the  murderer.  The  press  never  denounces 
them  as  such  in  advance,  but  presuming  their  innocence,  be- 
speaks for  them  a  fair  and  impartial  trial. 

If  it  be  alleged  in  extenuation  of  the  crying  injustice  now 
every  day  being  done  by  the  whig  press  to  the  eminent  whig 
delegates  that  are  coming  up  from  the  other  fourteen  Southern 
States,  that  they  do  not  impute  such  unpatriotic  purposes  to 
Judge  Sharkey  and  the  great  body  of  other  whigs  and  demo- 
crats who  have  been  appointed  to  the  convention — but  only  to 
a  portion  of  them,  the  "  Hotspurs" — the  "  madcaps"  of  the 
south — the  answers  to  such  plea  is  most  evident,  that  the  num- 
ber of  such  must  be  very  small,  and  that  wise  and  prudent  men 
of  both  parties  ought  to  be  sent  there,  and  to  be  in  full  attend- 
ance, to  vote  down  instantly  any  and  every  extreme  and  unpa- 
triotic proposition,  which  such  men  might  offer. 

If  it  be  true,  as  we  often  hear,  that  "  there  are  fanatics  on 
both  sides  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,"  it  is  only  proof  of  the 
greater  necessity  for  the  wise  and  conservative  men  of  both 
parties,  whigs  and  democrats,  in  the  face  of  such  formidable 
difficulties,  to  mingle  more  freely  together,  and  by  joint  con- 
sultation save  both  the  Union  and  the  rights  of  the  South 
against  the  united  attacks  of  these  alleged  fanatics.  How 
will  the  whigs  of  Tennessee  feel,  when  that  convention  shall 
have  met  and  proceeded  to  business,  and  when  they  may  see 
their  political  brethren  from  the  other  fourteen  States,  as  well 
as  the  democrats,  in  close  and  hard  struggle  against  both  these 
sets  of  fanatics,  and  nothing  wanted  to  secure  an  easy  and 
triumphant  victory  over  both,  but  a  full  delegation  from  their 
party  in  the  State,  to  assist  by  their  counsel  and  their  votes  in 
its  achievement  ?  I  state  the  whig  argument  on  this  point  in 
its  full  force,  in  order  to  furnish  its  refutation,  not  because  I 
believe  that  there  is  any  material  portion  of  the  people  of  any 
State,  or  that  a  single  delegate  from  any  State,  whig  or  demo- 
crat, will  be  in  favor  of  dissolving  the  Union.  That  any  such 
result  is  likely  to  grow  out  of  the  convention  is  refuted  by 


326  ^         CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

every  thing  that  the  whig  editors  of  the  State  have  ever  heard 
or  known  or  read  of  the  American  people.  I  doubt  much  if 
all  of  them  put  together  ever  saw  twenty  men  out  of  the  mil- 
lions they  have  seen  who  were  hostile  to  the  Union.  It  is  re- 
futed every  time  they  cast  their  eyes  over  the  names  of  the 
delegates  already  appointed  from  th©  different  States.  It  is 
refuted  by  their  daily  intercourse  with  their  neighbors  with 
whom  they  transact  business  and  interchange  personal  and 
social  civilities,  which  necessarily  imply  confidence  and  esteem. 
This  they  could  not  do,  if  they  really  believed  that  those  who 
are  favorable  to  this  convention  were  traitors  and  disun- 
ionists. 

If  they  belived  it,  they  would  shun  and  avoid  every  man 
they  met  with — 

"  As  one  who  sees  a  serpent  in  his  way 
Glistening  and  basking  in  the  summer  ray, 
Disorder'd,  stops,  to  shun  the  danger  near, 
Then  walks  with  faintness  on  and  looks  wilh  fear." 

And  yet  I  do  not  mean  to  charge  these  gentlemen  with  any 
disposition  wilfully  to  misrepresent  the  designs  and  purposes 
of  this  convention  ;  far  from  it ;  but  I  fear  that  they  have  not 
yet  sufficiently  waked  up  to  the  magnitude  of  the  perils  which 
now  encompass  the  south,  nor  made  a  sufficient  effort  to  throw 
themselves  out  of  the  habit  of  taking  a  party  view  of  almost 
every  subject  which  may  come  up  under  their  review. 

I  have  thus  far  given  you  my  opinions  as  to  what  this  con- 
vention was  not  called  for.  I  now  propose  to  trouble  you  with 
a  few  observations  as  to  what  was  expected  to  be  accom- 
plished by  it. 

For  years  the  north  has  been  attempting  to  interfere  with 
the  rights  of  the  south  in  relation  to  our  slave  property.  The 
attempts  were  weak  at  first,  but  grew  stronger  ever  session  of 
Congress,  until  from  the  presentation  of  petitions,  they  advance 
to  the  introduction  of  bills,  embracing  the  Wilmot  proviso,  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  all  the 
public  establishments  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  transfer  of  slaves  by  their  rightful  owners  from  one 
slave  State  to  another.  These  measures  were  actually  pend- 
ing before  Congress  in  some  shape  or  other  and  under  fierce 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  i  PEOPLE,  327 

and  daily  discussion  in  that  body.  The  Wilmot  proviso  had 
actually  passed  one  House,  and  the  success  of  all  of  them 
every  day  becoming  more  and  more  problematical.  In  this 
condition  of  things,  the  south  became  seriously  impressed  with 
the  danger  of  her  condition. 

The  unconstitutionality  of  most  of  these  measures,  the  ine- 
quality and  injustice  of  all  of  them,  occupied  much  of  her  atten- 
tion, and  the  probable  consequences  of  their  passage  through 
Congress  on  her  peace  and  safety,  produced  the  most  thrilling 
and  anxious  solicitude.  In  this  condition  of  things,  one  public 
journal  would  express  one  sentiment  as  to  what  it  was  proper 
to  be  done,  whilst  another  would  suggest  altogether  a  different 
mode  of  warding  off  the  threatened  and  suspended  blow.  So 
of  the  public  men  of  the  south,  in  Congress,  in  State  legisla- 
tures, before  assemblies  of  the  people  ;  some  were  too  hot  under 
these  assaults  on  our  rights,  others  too  tame  and  submissive; 
amid  this  confusion  of  sentiments  many  wise  and  good  men  of 
the  south,  both  whigs  and  democrats,  equally  involved  in  the 
injurious  consequences  of  the  proposed  legislation  against  our 
rights,  for  the  double  purpose  of  making  a  firm,  united  appeal 
to  our  northren  brethren  to  forbear  these  invasions  and  also  of 
giving  moderation  and  harmony  of  action  amongst  the  people 
of  the  south  in  their  opposition  to  these  measures,  resolve  on 
calling  the  convention.  The  north  had  called  many  conven- 
tions, more  or  less  large,  in  order  to  give  force  and  energy,  and 
harmony  amongst  her  own  people  in  favor  of  such  legislation. 
The  south  could  see  no  good  reason  why  she  should  not  also 
meet  in  convention  to  devise  the  best  means  of  preventing  or 
defeating  such  legislation.  But  there  is  a  striking  difference 
between  the  two  parties. 

The  north  has  only  to  get  a  united  vote  of  her  own  members 
in  favor  of  these  measures  and  they  become  the  laws  of  the  land, 
whilst  the  south  has  not  only  to  get  a  united  vote  of  her  mem- 
bers against  them  but  must  make  such  united,  firm  and  rational 
appeal  to  the  justice  and  magnanimity  of  the  north  as  may 
prevent  this  unanimity  in  her  vote.  It  was  mainly  to  make  this 
appeal,  in  no  degrading  spirit  of  truckling  submission,  nor  yet 
in  the  tone  of  blustering  bravado,  that  the  approaching  conven- 
tion was  called.     If  held  before  the  passage  of  these  obnoxious 


328  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

laws,  the  convention  can  take  up  each  bill  by  itself  and  set 
forth  faithfully  how  it  would  operate  on  the  peace,  safety  and 
prosperity  of  the  south.  A  powerful  document  like  this,  pre- 
pared with  ability,  moderation  and  firmness,  would  be  every 
where  read  and  could  not  fail  to  work  a  most  happy  influence. 
When  the  whigs  of  the  north  should  hear  from  the  whigs  of  the 
south  through  such  a  document  how  ruinously  these  measures 
would  operate  on  them,  their  families  and  property;  when  the 
democrats  of  the  north  should  hear  the  same  thing  from  their 
brethren  of  the  south,  it  was  sincerely  hoped  that  they  would 
forbear  all  further  meddling  with  our  rights  and  leave  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union  precisely  as  it  was  bequeathed  to  us  by 
the  fathers  of  the  republic. 

I  know  well  how  readily  the  opinion  may  be  entertained  and 
advanced  that  there  is  no  likelihood  that  such  an  appeal  would 
bring  the  north  to  an  abandonment  of  their  purpose.  Still  it 
can  do  the  south  no  possible  harm  to  make  the  experiment — to 
exhaust  the  whole  stock  of  reason  and  argument  in  the  praise- 
worthy endeavor.  We  may  be  too  sanguine  of  the  result,  but 
surely  there  can  be  no  reason  for  branding  us  as  traitors  and 
disunionists  for  making  a  fruitless  effort  to  prevent,  by  reason 
and  argument,  what  these  opponents  of  the  convention  declare 
they  will  resent,  by  flying  to  arms  after  the  proposed  laws  shall 
have  been  passed.  Look  to  all  they  said  and  wrote  through 
the  last  summer  and  winter,  and  see  how  uniformly  they  de- 
clare that  if  these  laws  shall  be  actually  passed  and  carried  into 
execution,  they  would  then  resist  at  every  hazard  and  to  the  last 
extremity.  This  convention  proposes  to  say  something  or  do 
something  before  it  comes  to  this"last  extremity  ,"and  is  therefore 
hallowed  and  sanctified  by  a  greater  devotion  to  the  peace,  con- 
stitution and  Union  of  the  country  than  their  own  proposition. 
If  any  portion  of  the  south,  not  believing  in  the  efficacy  of  this 
mode  of  trying  to  avert  the  calamity,  should  stand  by  unassis- 
ting  in  the  movement,  it  might  not  be  so  strange ;  but  for  them 
to  turn  upon  us  and  denounce  us  an  hundred  times  oftener  and 
with  epithets  infinitely  more  abusive  and  disgracing  than  those 
of  our  oppressors,  is  more  astounding  than  anything  heretofore 
exhibited  in  the  history  of  party  warfare. 

The  argument  is  often  used  against  the  convention,  that  in 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  329 

all  probability  before  the  first  Monday  in  June  all  the  slavery 
questions  now  agitating  Congress  will  be  amicably  compromised 
and  settled.  Well,  if  they  are  the  convention  need  not  meet, 
or  meeting  will  gladly  confirm  such  compromise  if  thought 
proper,  and  sincerely  rejoice  in  the  renewal  of  those  amicable 
relations  which  have  heretofore  carried  the  nation  to  so  high  a 
degree  of  greatness  and  prosperity.  But  if  not  then  settled, 
some  scheme  or  plan  of  settlement  may  be  pending,  on  which 
it  may  be  of  the  highest  consequence  that  such  a  convention 
should  give  a  wise  and  prudent  expression  of  opinion.  Or  the 
convention  might  itself  present  a  scheme  and  plan  not  yet  of- 
fered, which  would  give  peace  and  repose  to  a  now  agitated 
and  distracted  country.  What  may  not  a  heart  beating  high 
with  attachment  to  the  country,  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union  hope  for  from  the  united  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  both 
of  the  great  parties  of  the  south,  in  the  great  crisis  which  will 
then  have  arrived  ?  To  turn  the  noble  efforts  now  making  to 
give  to  the  south  all  the  benefits  of  that  united  wisdom  and 
patriotism,  into  the  narrow  and  contracted  channel  of  party, 
is  madness — is  death  to  her  dearest  rights  and  interests.  Those 
who  have  sanctioned  and  advocated  this  convention  cannot 
and  will  not  recede.  A  great  and  difficult  work  lies  before 
them.  A  work  in  which  the  whigs  of  the  south  have  as  deep 
an  interest  as  those  of  the  opposite  party.  If  they  will  not 
unite  and  help  us,  we  will  do  the  best  we  can  by  ourselves. 
The  same  calamities  which  await  us  must  fall  on  them.  But 
if,  insensible  of  the  danger,  they  do  not  cheerfully  come  to  our 
aid,  we  shall  nevertheless  rejoice  to  secure  them  by  the  same 
acts  and  deeds  by  which  we  secure  ourselves  and  families. 
But  whilst  we  are  trying  every  plan  and  doing  every  thing 
which  we  suppose  may  be  calculated  to  save  the  south,  we  have 
a  right,  a  just  and  reasonable  right,  to  ask  them  to  cast  no 
imputation  on  our  motives — to  deal  out  no  more  denunciations 
against  us  as  traitors  and  disunionists,  until  the  convention 
shall  have  furnished,  by  its  acts,  some  evidence  of  the  fact. 
We  disclaim  every  such  purpose.  We  disclaim  it  for  the  dem- 
ocratic party  ;  we  disclaim  it  for  the  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  the  whig  party  who  are  co-operating  nobly  with  us;  and 
when  that  convention  shall  assemble,  the  wisdom,  calmness  and 


330  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

patriotism  of  its  deliberations  and  resolves,  in  my  opinion,  will 
be  the  proudest  vindication  of  its  devotion  to  our  country,  its 
Constitution  and  the  Union. 

Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 


LETTER 

Of  Ex-Gov.  Aaron    V,  Brown,  on  the  late  Southern  Convention, 
in  June,  1850. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Nashville  Union  : 

Sir — It  was  my  intention  to  have  addressed  you  this  letter 
after  the  rise  of  the  late  Southern  Convention,  in  order  to  give 
my  fellow-citizens  of  the  Tennessee  delegation,  for  whom  I  ac- 
ted in  part,  on  one  of  the  most  important  committees  of  that 
body,  (and  most  of  whom  retired  early  in  the  session,)  some 
connected  and  condensed  account  of  its  final  action.  Unavoid- 
able delay  in  its  preparation  had  almost  induced  an  abandon- 
ment of  the  idea,  when  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Nicholson's 
letter,  my  colleague  on  the  committee,  remitted  my  mind  back 
to  its  original  purpose.  The  language  accidently  used  by  Mr. 
Nicholson  in  the  early  paragraphs  of  his  letter  too  nearly  con- 
veys the  idea  that  the  minority  report  and  the  views  and  posi- 
tions taken  in  it  were  personal  entirely  to  himself,  which 
makes  it  both  necessary  and  proper  for  me  here  to  remark,  that 
it  was  signed  not  only  by  Mr.  Nicholson,  but  by  myself  and 
one  of  the  delegates  from  each  of  the  States  of  Alabama,  Flor- 
ida and  Arkansas,  and  contained  of  course  the  views  of  all  of 
us.  It  grew  out  of  the  discussions  which  had  taken  place  in 
the  committee  room,  in  which  I  maintained,  that  we  were  not 
charged  with  the  performance  of  that  duty — that  I  doubted 
much  both  the  necessity  and  propriety  of  the  convention  sen- 
ding out  an  address  at  all.  That  our  resolutions  and  their 
preambles  stood  in  need  of  no  address — no  commentary,  to 
elucidate  and  explain  them.      That  the  series  of  resolutions 


332  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

constituted  the  very  acts  and  doings  of  the  convention,  which 
we  had  prepared  with  great  care  andthoughtfulness,  and  on 
which  I  thought  the  convention  might  proudly  stand  and  chal- 
lenge the  scrutiny  and  criticism  "  of  genius,  of  talents  and  of 
time."  But  if  we  sent  forth  a  long  address — a  mere  speech — 
argument — commentary  or  whatever  else  it  might  be  called, 
the  enemies  of  the  convention,  instead  of  attacking  the  resolu- 
tions themselves,  would  recoil  from  such  a  bomb-proof  battery 
as  we  had  erected,  and  turn  aside  to  assault  outer  works  of  mi- 
nor importance,  and  indeed  in  my  judgment  of  no  importance 
at  all.  We  have  already  witnesed  much  of  what  I  then  anti- 
cipated in  my  argument  before  the  committee.  What  have  we 
yet  heard  said,  or  seen  written  against  the  resolutions  of  the 
convention  ?  Almost  nothing  at  all,  whilst  the  hostile  presses 
of  the  country,  or  many  of  them,  are  making  points  of  petty 
criticism  not  on  the  resolutions,  which  are  the  real  actings  and 
doings  of  the  convention,  but  on  the  speech — the  mere  com- 
mentary on  the  resolutions.  How  much  more  intelligent  and 
statesman-like  would  it  be,  to  let  slight  errors  and  mistakes  in 
the  commentary  alone,  unless  they  could  find  them  also  exist- 
ing in  the  original  text.  But  my  views  against  sending  out 
any  address  at  all,  were  not  embraced  by  a  majority  of  the 
committee,  and  when  they  were  in  the  act  of  agreeing  on  the 
address  as  reported,  I  announced  to  the  committee  that  no  re- 
course was  left  to  those  who  could  not  concur  in  the  address 
but  a  minority  report,  which  they  would  present  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  in  no  spirit  of  irritated  temper  and  with  no  view  of 
disturbing  the  future  harmony  of  the  convention.  The  pre- 
sentation of  it  next  morning  by  Mr.  Nicholson,  took  no  member 
by  surprise,  nor  was  it  considered  by  any  one,  I  believe,  in  any 
other  light,  than  as  a  prudent  and  proper  mode  of  putting  the 
members  who  signed  it  "right  upon  the  record  ."As  the  objections 
taken  to  that  part  of  the  address,  which  related  to  the  report  of 
the  Committee  of  Thirteen  in  the  Senate,  were  general,  I  think 
proper  here  to  specify  the  most  important  ones  which  presented 
themselves  to  my  mind.  1  considered  that  many  of  the  ex- 
pressions, and  indeed  the  general  tone  of  that  part  of  the  ad- 
dress might  be  taken  as  an  unkind  rebuke  of  the  members  of 
that  committee.     I  had  no  heart  to  rebuke  them  myself.     I  had 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  333 

approved  the  persevering  exertions  of  that  senator  who  was  so 
instrumental  in  its  creation.  I  had  approved  the  selection  of 
distinguished  men  who  had  served  upon  it.  I  had  waited  with 
anxiety  for  the  day  which  should  usher  the  result  of  their  la- 
bors before  the  country.  At  last  their  report  was  presented, 
not  such  as  I  had  hoped  it  would  be — not  such  as  without 
amendments  I  could  approve  and  sanction — but  yet  so  infin- 
itely superior  to  the  northern  measures,  which  it  wa3  intended 
to  supersede,  and  so  susceptible  by  a  few  amendments  of  being 
made  acceptable  to  the  south,  that  I  did  hail  it  as  a  measure 
which  when  perfected  would  give  peace  and  repose  to  the 
country.  Under  these  circumstances  I  could  not  consent  to 
administer  the  slightest  rebuke  to  the  members  of  the  com- 
mittee, nor  to  censure  in  such  unqualified  terms  the  proposi- 
tions which  they  had  submitted. 

The  presentation  of  our  minority  report,  had  the  effect  of 
instantly  attracting  the  attention  of  members  to  those  parts  of 
the  address  objected  to,  which  resulted  in  a  general  and  almost 
spontaneous  agreement  to  amend  on  the  motion  of  Gen.  Pil- 
low, by  striking  out  many  of  the  most  objectionable  expressions 
in  that  part  of  the  address.     Still,  with  even  this  purgation,  I 
could  not  consent  to  vote  for  it,   (the  address)   until  it  was  so 
amended  as  to  show  expressly  on  its  face  that  there  were  many 
members  not  yet  satisfied  with  it.     So  amended,  I  was  willing 
and  did  vote  for  it — because  whilst  it  gave  others  the  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  out  whatever  opinions  they  entertained  against 
the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Thirteen  in  the  Senate,  it  ef- 
fectually protected  me  against  all  responsibility  for  them.     I 
had  yet  another  reason  higher  and  stronger  than  all  for  finally 
voting  for  the  address.     It  had  been  amended  in  one  great  and 
essential  particular — more  important  in  my  humble  judgment 
than  all  the  other  amendments  put  together.     That  is  to  be 
found  in  the  last  one  of  Gen.  Pillow's  amendments.     All  the 
others  had  been  prepared  by  him,  and  I  was  appealed  to,  to 
know  if  they  would  reconcile  me  to  vote  for  the  address.     I  ad- 
vanced to  the  table,  wrote  it  down,  and  then  declared  "with  that 
inserted  I  was  ready   to  vote  for  the  address."     The  General 
adopted  it  into  his  series — the  committee  with  slight  variation, 
approved  and  reported  it,  and  the  convention  adopted  it.   This 


334  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

amendment  in  substance  declared,  that  while  the  convention 
regarded  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  an  extreme  concession, 
they  did  not  mean  to  demand  it  as  an  ultimatum,  but  that  the 
south  would  acquiesce  in  any  other  adjustment  which  secured 
to  her  substantially  the  same  rights  and  privileges.  I  hailed 
this  amendment  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  because  it  clearly 
indicated  no  wish  to  supersede  the  patriotic  labors  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Senate  as  far  as  they  had  gone,  but  that  the  con- 
vention was  perfectly  willing  to  see  it  perfected  by  amend- 
ments, which  would  make  it  equivalent  to  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, in  the  advantages  secured  to  the  south.  For  myself,  it 
would  be  among  the  last  of  my  wishes  to  see  that  bill  super- 
seded and  voted  down,  even  if  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  its 
very  words,  were  substituted  in  its  stead.  I  had  much  rather 
see  that  or  its  equivalent  inserted  as  an  amendment  to  the  pres- 
ent bill — so  that  its  identity  might  be  preserved,  reflecting  light 
and  honor  upon  the  names  of  its  distinguished  authors.  They 
are  entitled  to  it,  and  I  know  nor  feel  enough  of  party  rancor 
in  reference  to  any  of  them,  to  withhold  the  meed  of  merited 
praise. 

The  Missouri  Compromise,  as  the  standard  or  measure  of 
concession  to  which  the  south  might  submit  without  dishonor, 
was  no  new  doctrine  with  me.  I  had  seen  the  beneficial  results 
of  that  compromise  in  the  admission  of  Arkansas  and  Florida, 
two  slave  holding  States,  without  any  serious  opposition  by 
the  north.  I  had  seen  the  same  line  extended  through  the 
territory  of  Texas  when  annexed  to  the  United  States  with 
the  happiest  influence  on  the  country.  Under  the  light  of  such 
experience,  in  my  messages  to  the  General  Assembly  and  in 
all  my  popular  addresses  to  the  people  of  Tennessee  in  three 
arduous  canvasses— at  all  times  and  on  all  occasions,  I  have 
advocated  the  line  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes  north  lati- 
tude as  a  just  and  reasonable  line  of  partition.  But  I  am  free 
to  declare  that  I  have  never  seen  the  day  or  the  hour  when  I 
would  have  conceded  more  than  this  or  have  fallen  below 
that  measure  of  concession.  The  despotism  of  numbers  may 
muster  all  her  forces — fanaticism  may  kindle  all  her  fires,  the 
fairest  fields  of  the  south  may  be  desolated,  before  I  will  con- 
sent to  add  dishonor  and  degradation  to  the  other  wrongs  of 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  335 

the  south.  But  I  do  not  mean  to  deal  in  any  trifling  play  of 
words,  when  I  advocate  and  assent  to  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise. I  do  not  demand  it  in  hec  verba.  I  look  rather  to  the 
true  nature  and  substance  of  things,  and  whenever  the  south 
shall  be  tendered  an  adjustment  which  shall  be  equivalent  to 
that  compromise,  I  for  one  shall  not  hesitate  to  advise  its  ac- 
ceptance. Having  stated  that  I  was  in  favor  of  the  present 
bill,  with  amendments,  I  will  proceed  frankly  to  state  what 
amendments,  in  my  opinion,  would  make  it  equivalent  to  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  therefore  acceptable. 

In  the  first  place,  I  would  remove  every  shadow  of  doubt  from 
that  part  of  the  bill  which  relates  to  fixing  the  future  bounda- 
ries of  Texas,  by  expressly  declaring  that  the  territory  pro- 
posed to  be  ceded  to  the  United  States,  should  be  slave  terri- 
tory in  her  hands  precisely  as  it  now  is  in  the  hands  of  Texas. 
To  such  an  explanation  none  could  object,  except  only  such  as 
were  resolved  not  to  abide  by  the  express  terms  and  conditions 
of  annexation.  This  would  leave  the  Missouri  line  of  thirty- 
six  thirty  established  as  far  west  as  the  Rio  Grande. 

In  relation  to  California,  I  would  admit  her  into  the  Union 
with  the  brief  but  expressive  proviso,  that  her  southern  boun- 
dary should  be  thirty-six  thirty  to  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  I  would 
waive  the  irregularity  of  her  application — all  imputed  execu- 
tive dictation — all  doubts  of  the  citizenship  of  those  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  formation  of  her  constitution.  I  would  do 
more  than  this — I  would  admit  her  as  a  State  larger  than 
Pennsylvania — than  New  York — than  Virginia,  but  I  would 
not  consent  to  give  her  the  whole  Pacific  coast  to  herself. — 
South  California  does  not  and  never  did  desire  it.  Her  people 
have  often  and  solemnly  protested  against  it.  Besides,  we 
have  many  reasons  to  believe  that  the  people  of  California,  an- 
ticipating objections  to  her  enormous  boundaries,  have  au- 
thorized her  representatives  to  accept  any  alteration  that  may 
be  made,  and  instantly  to  take  their  seats  in  the  halls  of  Con- 
gress. If,  however,  this  be  not  so,  the  delay  of  a  few  months 
cannot  be  very  prejudicial  to  her;  and  if  it  were,  she  may  well 
deserve  it.  for  attempting — by  making  such  unreasonable  claim 
of  boundary — to  influence  a  great  political  and  local  question 
of  the  Union,  when  she  was  not  yet  a  member  of  it. 

23 


336  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

This  curtailment  of  the  boundary  of  California  would  make 
it  necessary  to  create  a  territorial  government  for  South  Cali- 
fornia. This,  and  the  two  others  provided  in  the  bill,  disposes 
of  the  whole  country  acquired  from  Mexico.  Now  what  shall 
be  applied  to  it?  The  north  answers,  the  Wilmot  proviso,  ex- 
cluding slavery  from  every  part  of  it.  The  convention  replies 
that  to  this  she  never  will  submit,  but  further  says  in  the  spirit 
of  compromise  and  "  in  consideration  of  what  is  due  to  the  sta- 
bility of  our  institutions,"  she  will  concede  to  its  application  as 
far  as  to  latitude  thirty-six  thirty,  as  she  had  done  on  two  for- 
mer occasions,  or  she  will  concede  to  any  equivalent  compro- 
mise. Now  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  in  the  high  and  deli- 
cate character  of  mediators  between  the  contending  parties, 
reject  the  Wilmot  proviso  altogether,  and  present  the  Clayton 
compromise  substantially  as  the  basis  of  settlement.  What 
was  the  Clayton  compromise  ?  Simply  that  Congress  should 
organize  territorial  governments  for  the  country  acquired  from 
Mexico,  neither  admitting  nor  excluding  the  introduction  of 
slavery  into  any  portion  of  it;  leaving  slavery  to  spread  itself 
over  all  and  every  part  of  it,  if  it  could  do  so  consistently  with 
the  Mexican  laws  abolishing  slavery.  Whether  these  laws  did 
or  did  not  abolish  it,  or  if  they  did,  whether  they  were  still  in 
force,  were  questions  under  the  Clayton  compromise  left  to  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  And  so 
they  are  by  the  present  bill,  and  my  opinion  has  been  pro- 
claimed to  the  people  of  Tennessee  in  more  than  fifty  public 
addresses,  declaring  that  all  such  Mexican  laws  stood  repealed 
the  moment  that  country  passed  "  beneath  the  wing  of  the 
eagle."  Whether  the  Clayton  compromise  be  equal  to  the 
Missouri  one,  depends  entirely  upon  the  correctness  of  this 
opinion.  y 

Fortunately,  however,  the  convention  decided  this  question 
for  itself,  and  demonstrated,  I  think  conclusively,  that  there  is 
now  no  law  whatever  in  the  territories  acquired,  excluding 
slavery  from  them,  and  that  of  consequence  the  Clayton  com- 
promise (substantially  that  of  the  bill  now  pending  before 
Congress)  is  an  ample  equivalent  to  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
The  following  are  its  resolutions  directly  on  the  point : 

19.  Resolved,  That  the  whole  legislative  power  of  the  United  States  gov- 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  337 

ernment  is  derived  from  the  Constitution  and  delegated  to  Congress,  and  can- 
not be  increased  or  diminished  but  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution. 

20.  Resolved,  That  the  acquisition  of  territory  by  the  United  States,  wheth- 
er occupied  or  vacant,  either  by  purchase,  conquest  or  treaty,  adds  nothing 
to  the  legislative  power  of  Congress,  as  granted  and  limited  in  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

21.  Resolved,  That  the  adoption  of  a  foreign  law  existing  at  the  time  in 
territory  purchased,  ceded  or  granted,  is  the  exercise  of  legislative  power, 
and  cannot  be  done  unless  the  law  is  of  such  a  character  as  might  rightfully 
be  enacted  by  Congress  under  the  Constitution,  without  reference  to  its  pre- 
existence  as  a  foreign  law, 

22.  Resolved,  That  the  alleged  principle  of  the  law  of  nations  recognizing, 
to  some  extent,  the  perpetuity  of  foreign  laws  in  existence  within  a  territory 
at  the  time  of  its  acquisition  by  purchase,  conquest  or  treaty,  cannot,  under 
our  Constitution  and  form  of  government,  go  to  the  extent  of  continuing  in 
force,  in  such  territory,  any  law  that  could  not  be  directly  enacted  by  Con- 
gress, by  virtue  of  the  powers  of  legislation  delegated  to  it  by  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

23.  Resolved,  That  no  power  of  doing  any  act  or  thing  by  any  of  the  de- 
partments of  our  government,  can  be  based  upon  the  principles  of  any  for- 
eign law,  or  of  the  laws  of  nations,  beyond  what  exists  in  such  department 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  without  reference  to  such  for- 
eign law  or  the  laws  of  nations. 

24.  Resolved,  That  slavery  exists  in  the  United  States,  independent  of  the 
Constitution  ;  that  it  is  recognized  by  the  Constitution  in  a  three- fold  aspect : 
first,  as  property  ;  second,  as  a  domestic  relation  of  service  or  labor  under 
the  law  of  a  State  ;  and  lastly,  as  a  basis  of  political  power.  And  viewed 
in  any  or  all  of  these  lights,  Congress  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution 
to  create  or  destroy  it  anywhere  ;  nor  can  such  power  be  derived  from  for- 
eign laws,  conquest,  cession,  treaty,  or  the  laws  of  nations,  nor  from  any 
other  source  but  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  itself. 

If  it  be  asked,  if  these  were  our  views,  after  indicating  them 
as  we  did  by  our  minority  report,  why  we  did  not  press  them  in 
argument  before  the  convention  and  reject  the  address,  the 
ready  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  we  were  in  a  minor- 
ity— a  minority  ascertained  to  be  too  small  to  give  promise  of 
success  in  full  convention,  Situated  as  we  were,  all  we  could 
accomplish  after  the  convention  had  declared  for  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  was  to  prevail  on  them  further  to  declare  that  they 
would  acquiesce  in  any  other  adjustment  equally  favorable. — 
This  being  done,  we  conceived  that  the  bill  pending  before 
Congress  did  not  stand  necessarily  suspended  or  condemned 
by  the  convention,  but  was  still  open  and  susceptible  of  im- 


338  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

provement  until  it  should  become  a  satisfactory  equivalent. — 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  did  we  withdraw  from  the  unequal  con- 
test about  the  address,  and  permit  it  to  go  with  the  declaration 
on  its  face,  that  we  were  not  satisfied  with  a  portion  of  it. 

Judging  from  the  published   debates   in  Congress,  I  doubt 
much  whether  the  amendment  I  have  indicated  will  be  adopted, 
or  indeed   whether  the  bill  will  be  passed  at  all.     I  rejoice, 
therefore,  that  the  convention  has  declared  for  the  Missouri  line 
as  a  definite  and  specific  compromise,  in  which  the  south  will  be 
willing  to  acquiesce.     This  is   precise  and  unmistakable,  and 
will  constitute,  I  trust,  a  great  common  rallying  point,  where  all 
the  friends  of  the  south  can  meet  with  that  perfect  unanimity 
of  sentiment  which  characterized  the  convention  in  adopting 
it.     In  taking  the  vote  upon  it,  no  discordant  note  was  heard 
throughout  the  spacious  hall  of  her  deliberations.     The  north 
will  never  see  in  its  adoption  the  slightest  evidence  of  a  craven 
spirit  of  pusillanimity ;   she  may  rather   discover  in   the  una- 
nimity of  that  vote  the  most  solemn   determination  never  to 
fall  below  her  former  concessions  in  any  important  or  material 
particular.     In  convention  I  spoke  for  no  State,  no  district,  but 
only  for  those  who  were   in  favor  of  being  represented  there, 
and  who  kindly  appointed  me  and  others  for  that  purpose. — 
But  here  I  speak  for  myself,  when  I  say  that  rather  than  see 
her  fall  materially  below  her  former  concessions — the  Missouri 
— the  Texas — the    Clayton — the   present  compromise,   when 
amended  as  I  have  stated  it  should  be,  I  would  advise  her  to 
resort  to  every  sort  of  municipal  regulation  within  the  powers 
of  the  States — to  quarantine  regulations  of  the  most  annoy- 
ing character — to  every  species  of  embarrassment  to  her  trade 
and  commerce.  I  would  have  every  southern  legislature  earn- 
estly to  recommend  to  every  merchant,  trader,  and  factor,  to  for- 
bear the  purchase  and  traffic  in  a  single  commodity  of  north- 
ern manufacture ;  and  to  every   farmer,  and  planter,  and  day- 
laborer  of  the  south,  forthwith  to  give  up  the  purchase  and  use 
of  any  and  every  article   of  northern  fabric — to  give  bounties 
and  premiums  for  the  establishment  of  factories  of  every  sort 
and   description  throughout  the  southern  States — to  expend 
their  last  dollar  in  the  construction  of  railroads,  turnpikes  and 
canals  from  every  region  of  the  interior  to  the  best  exporting 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE,  339 

and  importing  cities  on  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf.  I  know 
well  how  ineffectual  such  modes  of  retaliation  would  prove  in 
times  of  apathy  and  unconcern  ;  but  when  the  proposed  meas- 
ures shall  have  been  passed — when  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
or  its  equivalent,  shall  have  been  rejected,  and  any  harder  or 
more  oppressive  terms  shall  be  attempted  to  be  enforced  on 
the  south,  few  men  can  tell  the  potency— the  mighty  power — V 
which  a  well  directed  system  of  commercial  non-intercour  *J? 
with  the  north  can  exert  in  times  of  high  and  general  excite- 
ment. There  is  no  need  of  total  suspension  of  that  inter- 
course ;  a  total  aversion  to  the  purchase  or  use  of  any  of  her 
manufactures,  to  effect  our  object :  25  or  30  per  cent,  annually 
of  her  profits  from  southern  intercourse  and  consumption,  will"1 
waken  up  the  whole  commercial  north  to  the  disaster  to  them- 
selves which  further  continuance  of  aggression  must  produce. 
Nor  would  all  this  be  done  in  a  wanton  spirit  of  retaliation  and 
revenge.  Retaliation  it  would  indeed  be  ;  but  it  would  be  re- 
taliation in  self  defence — defence  of  ourselves — our  property 
— our  families — our  homes  !  A  retaliation  sanctioned  and  ap- 
proved by  the  great  law  of  nature  and  of  God,  and  never  to  be 
discontinued  until  it  induced  a  change  in  the  oppression  of  our 
adversaries.  Entertaining  the  opinions  which  I  do  of  the  va- 
rious means  of  retaliation,  with  a  view  to  induce  the  north  to 
do  us  justice,  I  never  expect  to  advise  her  to  any  schemes  of 
disunion — of  cecession — of  nullification.  The  Union  is  my 
property — my  inherited  property — which  I  regard  of  great 
value.  I  never  mean  to  permit  the  north  to  take  it  from  me, 
nor  to  induce  me  by  its  aggressions  to  throw  it  away.  I  will 
contend  for  that  property  as  soon  and  as  long  as  for  any  other. 
There  are  many  cases  where  the  misconduct  of  partners  might 
justify  dissolution;  but  even  the  injured  partner,  for  various 
reasons,  might  well  decline  breaking  up  the  concern,  whilst  he 
would  choose  not  to  submit,  but  to  resent — to  retaliate  upon 
his  offending  co-partner  until  he  should  be  more  than  willing  to 
cease  his  unprofitable  warfare  on  his  rights. 

It  is  too  late  now  to  insist  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  is 
unconstitutional  and  cannot  be  voted  for  in  the  present  con- 
test. The  whole  system  of  northern  interference  with  slavery 
is  unconstitutional,  and  surely   we  may  be  allowed  in  self-de- 


340  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

fence  to  arrest  it  at  any  point  or  degree  of  latitude  we  may  be 
able.  If  we  cannot  save  all,  let  us  preserve  as  much  of  our 
rights  as  we  may  be  able  to  do.  Besides  this,  the  convention 
places  her  concession  to  the  line  of  thirty-six  thirty,  expressly 
on  the  ground  of  compromise — the  compromise  of  a  contested 
construction  of  the  Constitution.  Now  what  is  there  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  to  prevent  such  a  question  from  becoming  the 
£h2Per  SUDJect  of  a  compromise?  The  Constitution  itself  was 
&e  feature  of  compromise.  Why  may  not  a  proper  construe- 
tion  of  certain  clauses  of  it  become  so  ?  To  the  resolutions  of 
annexation  in  1844-5,  the  clause  was  inserted  excluding  slavery 
north  of  thirty-six  thirty,  and  yet  the  friends  of  annexation 
found  no  difficulties  in  afterwards  giving  them  their  support. — 
Why  was  this?  Doubtless  because  they  considered  that  the 
construction  of  the  constitution  on  this  subject  had  been  com- 
promised by  their  predecessors  in  the  halls  of  Congress  more 
than  twenty  years  before,  and  no  one  felt  constrained  by  his  in- 
dividual opinions  (if  it  were  a  new  question)  to  open  afresh  the 
bleeding  wounds  of  his  country.  That  compromise  of  consti- 
tutional construction  extended  to  thirty-six  thirty,  and  there- 
fore as  a  precedent  carries  us  no  further.  All  beyond  that  is 
without  warrant,  without  precedent,  and  utterly  subversive  of 
all  equality  among  the  States.  Remember  I  am  talking  not 
about  ordinary  legislative  or  even  judicial  precedents.  I  am 
speaking  of  solemn  compacts  or  covenants  between  large  sec- 
tions of  the  nation,  in  times  of  great  exigency,  when  the  Re- 
public is  in  danger,  and  which  are  therefore  more  to  be  rever- 
enced and  observed  than  precedents  of  an  ordinary  character. 
I  consider  the  compromise  tariff,  the  Missouri,  and  Texas,  and 
the  present  one,  if  adopted,  to  be  all  of  that  description,  and  to 
impose  higher  obligations  for  their  observance.  In  confirma- 
tion of  these  views,  let  me  remind  you  of  the  full  response  to 
them  in  the  last  message  of  the  lamented  Polk : 

"  Considering  the  several  States  and  the  citizens  of  the  several  States 
as  equals,  and  entitled  to  equal  rights  under  the  Constitution,  if  this  were 
an  original  question,  it  might  well  be  insisted  on  that  the  principle  of  non- 
interference is  the  true  doctrine,  and  that  Congress  could  not,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  express  grant  of  power,  interfere  with  their  relative  rights. — 
Upon  a  great  emergency,  however,  and  under  menacing  dangers  to  the 
Union,  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  in  respect  to  slavery  was  adopted. — 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  341 

The  same  line  was  extended  further  west  in  the  acquisition  of  Texas.  Af- 
ter an  acquiescence  of  nearly  thirty  years  in  the  principle  of  Compromise 
recognized  and  established  by  these  acts,  and  to  avoid  the  danger  to  the  Un- 
ion which  might  follow  if  it  were  now  disregarded,  I  have  heretofore  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  that  line  of  compromise  should  be  extended  on  the 
parallel  of  thirty-six  thirty  from  the  western  boundary  of  Texas,  where  it 
now  terminates,  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  This  is  the  middle  ground  of  com- 
promise, upon  which  the  different  sections  of  the  Union  may  meet,  as  they 
have  heretofore  met.  If  this  be  done,  it  is  confidently  believed  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  every  section  of  the  country,  however  widely  their 
abstract  opinions  on  the  subject  of  slavery  may  differ,  would  cheerfully  and 
patriotically  acquiesce  in  it,  and  peace  and  harmony  would  again  fill  our 
borders. 

"  The  restriction  north  of  the  line  was  yielded  to  in  the  case  of  Missouri 
and  Texas  upon  a  principle  of  compromise,  made  necessary  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  the  harmony,  and  possibly  the  existence  of  the  Union. 

"  It  was  upon  these  considerations  that  at  the  close  of  your  last  session, 
I  gave  my  sanction  to  the  principle  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  by 
approving  and  signing  the  bill  to  establish  "  the  territorial  government  of 
Oregon."  From  a  sincere  desire  to  preserve  the  harmony  of  the  Union, 
and  in  deference  of  the  acts  of  my  predecessors,  I  felt  constrained  to  yield 
my  acquiescence  to  the  extent  to  which  they  had  gone  in  compromising  this 
delicate  and  dangerous  question.  But  if  Congress  shall  now  reverse  the 
decision  by  which  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  effected,  and  shall  pro- 
pose to  extend  the  restriction  over  the  whole  territory,  south  as  well  as 
north  of  the  parallel  of  thirty-six  thirty,  it  will  cease  to  be  a  compromise » 
and  must  be  regarded  as  an  original  question." 

To  the  Missouri  Compromise  I  know  it  has  been  objected 
that  it  conflicts  with  the  doctrine  of  non-intervention ;  that  it 
is  intervention  on  one  side  of  the  line  and  non-intervention  on 
the  other.  Well,  and  suppose  it  is,  can  the  south  be  blamed 
for  that?  Has  she  ever  abandoned  that  doctrine  ?  Mr.  Nich- 
olson tells  us  truly  that  "  she  has  stood  upon  it  and  fought  for 
it  for  years."  She  fought  for  it  in  1820,  when  Missouri  was 
admitted,  but  could  not  stand;  but  was  compelled  to  fall  back 
on  non-intervention  south  of  thirty-six  thirty.  She  fought  for 
it  in  1844-5,  on  the  admission  of  Texas,  but  again  could  not 
stand,  and  fell  back  on  thirty- six  thirty.  What  shall  she  do 
now,  when  she  is  sorely  pressed  a  third  time? — when  the  north 
is  contending  for  the  total  exclusion  of  slavery  from  every  acre 
of  land  acquired  from  Mexico  and  from  every  port  and  harbor 
of  the  Pacific? — now,  when  her  zeal  has  been  thrice  heated 
from  the  burning  fires  of  fanaticism  and  her  insolence  grown 


342  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

more  arrogant,  from  a  consciousness  that  she  has  the  power  of 
numbers  to  sustain  it?  Now  what  was  it  becoming  and  proper 
for  the  south  to  have  done?  Still  to  demand  the  doctrine  of 
non-intervention?  'Well,  she  did.  Look  to  her  first  ten  reso- 
lutions and  see  if  she  did  not.  She  knew  that  it  would  be  re- 
fused to  her — on  every  former  occasion  it  had  been  refused  to 
her.  What  then  ?  She  knew — she  felt,  that  the  force  and 
power  of  the  two  great  precedents  of  Missouri  and  Texas 
would  be  brought  to  bear  upon  her,  and  therefore  she  frankly 
avows  her  willingness  to  abide  by  those  precedents,  and  to  be 
content  on  the  spirit  of  compromise,  and  "  because  she  con- 
siders it  due  to  the  stability  of  our  institutions,"  to  establish 
non-intervention  only  south  of  thirty-six  thirty.  The  voice  of 
the  convention  is,  on  this  point,  the  faithful  echo  of  that  of  the 
late  President,  as  we  have  just  shown,  and  the  sentiments  of 
both  the  living  and  the  dead  are  now  blended  in  perfect  har- 
mony for  the  settlement  of  these  great  questions. 

And  what  a  commentary  is  all  this  on  the  violent  assaults 
and  charges  made  on  it  before  the  convention  assembled. — 
With  some,  its  purposes  were  dark  and  treasonable;  whilst 
others,  more  charitable,  attributed  to  it  only  extreme  factious 
and  partisan  designs.  During  its  deliberations,  every  body 
present  and  absent  seemed  to  be  looking  out  for  some  terrible, 
if  not  horrible  explosion,  or  at  least  for  some  extreme  and 
ultra  demonstration,  dangerous  to  the  Union  and  to  the  coun- 
try. Well,  when  it  is  all  over — when  they  have  met,  resolved 
and  gone  home  again,  what  have  they  done  ?  Instead  of  some 
dreadful  plot  of  disunion — of  nullification — of  secession — 
they  have,  at  the  worst,  declared  in  favor  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, of  which  Mr.  Clay  himself  was  the  putative  author, 
and  certainly  its  most  eloquent  and  powerful  advocate ;  a 
compromise,  re-affirmed  by  all  those  wise  and  good  men  who 
lent  a  sanction  to  the  annexation  of  Texas — a  compromise, 
which  it  was  the  last  public  and  solemn  advice  of  President 
Polk  should  be  adopted  on  this  very  occasion.  This,  I  repeat, 
is  the  very  worst  they  have  done.  And  they  did  not  even  de- 
clare that  this  should  be  the  only  thing  with  which  they  would 
be  content — no  ultimatum — no  extreme  proposition — but  a 
further  and  final  declaration  that  they  would  acquiesce  in  any 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN.  PEOPLE.  343 

other  adjustment  which  might   give   equal  advantages  to  the 
south. 

With  all  these  facts  now  faithfully  recorded,  has  not  the  con- 
vention a  right  to  ask  for  its  deliberations  a  fair  and  impartial 
consideration?  Is  it  fair  and  impartial  for  any  man  or  any 
party  in  the  south  to  review  it  as  a  hostile  assemblage  of  ene- 
mies, whose  virtues  they  would  be  slow  to  discover,  and  reluc- 
tant to  admit,  or  whose  errors,  if  any,  they  would  be  sure  to 
exaggerate?  Is  it  fair  or  impartial  to  overlook  or  to  suppress 
all  public  approval  of  the  great  truths  set  forth  in  the  twenty- 
seven  or  twenty-eight  resolutions  of  that  body,  and  with  mi- 
croscopic vision  pick  and  cull  from  the  address  (which  is  al- 
ways on  such  occasions  scrutinized  with  less  care)  all  the  real 
or  imaginary  imperfections  which  it  may  contain?  The  reso- 
lutions of  every  such  assemblage  are  the  veal  text — authoritive 
and  binding  on  its  members — whilst  the  address  is  the  mere 
speech  sent  out  on  the  occasion — a  sort  of  commentary  of  less 
authority,  and  indeed  of  such  little  authority,  that  it  is  often 
directed  to  be  prepared  by  some  individual  or  committee,  after 
the  adjournment  has  taken  place.  But  these  actings  and 
doings  of  the  convention  are  those  of  your  friends,  not  your 
enemies.  Leave  then  the  work  of  suspicious  and  prejudiced 
review  to  your  adversaries  in  the  north.  They  will  do  it  suffi- 
ciently, no  doubt.  In  Tennessee  especially,  how  ought  this 
whole  subject  to  be  treated  and  considered  ?  It  was  made  a 
party  question  most  unfortunately  during  the  last  winter,  when, 
as  any  body  can  now  see,  it  ought  not  to  have  been.  Shall  it 
continue  so  to  be?  If  it  shall  be  so  treated  here,  and  in  some 
others  of  the  interested  States,  no  eye  hath  seen,  no  mind  yet 
contemplated  the  fearful  destiny  which  awaits  the  south- 
all  classes — all  parties  of  the  south — one  as  much  as  the 
other ;  and  when  the  fearful  time  shall  come  to  which  I  now 
but  faintly  allude  ;  when  northern  purposes  owing  to  our  dis- 
sension shall  be  fully  accomplished  ;  when  nine  hundred  mil- 
lions of  your  slave  property  shall  betaken  from  you;  when  nine 
hundred  millions  more  shall  be  lost  by  you  in  the  depreciation 
of  your  lands  ;  when  a  mortal  struggle  shall  be  going  on 
amongst  you  for  the  extinction  of  one  race  or  the  other,  (for 
the  north  is  drawing  a   cordon   around  you,)   then  we  or  our 


344  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES, 

children  on  whom  these  calamities  may  fall,  will  look  back  and 
curse  the  hour,  the  infatuated  hour,  that  ever  made  this  a 
party  question.  In  Tennessee,  I  say  again,  then,  no  public 
press  ought  to  make  it  one.  Every  man  that  patronises  any 
newspaper  evidently  disposed  to  do  so,  ought  to  go  direct  to 
its  editor  and  require  him  to  forbear  ;  should  demand  it  of  him, 
especially  as  due  to  the  safety  of  his  property,  to  the  peace  and 
security  of  his  family. 

The  whig  party  of  the  State  owes  it  to  itself  to  review  its 
former  course  upon  this  great  and  vital  question.  They  now 
stand  greatly  separated  from  their  friends  in  other  States, 
many  of  whom  they  saw  here,  mingling  their  counsels  freely 
with  those  of  the  other  party,  in  a  common  cause  and  a  com- 
mon danger.  What  was  the  result  ?  They  saw  Judge  Sharkey 
and  others  from  different  States,  they  saw  the  Tennessee  demo- 
cratic delegates  through  Mr.  Nicholson  and  myself,  advising 
a  more  conservative  and  conciliatory  course  then  many,  nay  a 
majority  were  disposed  to  pursue.  They  applauded  and  ap- 
proved, but  did  not  and  would  not  come  to  our  assistance. 
How  then  can  they  be  justified  in  complaining  that  anything 
went  wrong  in  the  convention ;  that  the  resolutions  were 
wrong  ;  that  the  address  was  wrong.  It  does  not  lie  in  their 
mouths  to  say  it,  so  long  as  they  stood  aloof  and  would  not 
come  into  convention  to  help  us  to  make  them  better.  But 
when  the  next  convention  shall  again  convene,  as  I  greatly 
fear  it  may  have  to  do,  I  sincerely  hope  that  they  will  be  there; 
both  parties  in  full  attendance  ;  to  help  by  their  joint  counsels 
and  joint  wisdom  to  save  the  south,  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union.  The  great  work  is  now  begun.  There  is  too  much 
probability  that  the  present  bill  presented  by  the  Committee  of 
Thirteen  being  amended  and  passed  through  the  Senate,  will  be. 
rejected  in  the  House,  and  that  the  House  bill,  admitting  Calr 
fornia  but  composing  and  settling  no  other  of  the  slavery  ques- 
tions, will  pass  that  body  and  be  rejected  in  the  Senate.  Thus 
Congress  will  have  adjourned,  having  rejected  both  the  Missouri 
Compromise  and  the  present  bill.  If  this  should  be  so  then  surely 
all  men  of  all  parties  will  be  willing  to  unite  in  that  great 
work,  at  a  crisis  so  imminent  as  will  then  exist.     If  not,  then 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE.  345 

all  is  lost ;  all  of  greatness  or  of  glory  which  the  south  ever 
dreamed  of  in  her  future  destiny. 

But  I  must  close  this  letter ;  my  object  has  been  to  explain 
the  position  assumed  by  Mr.  Nicholson  and  myself  in  the  min- 
ority report,  in  favor  of  the  present  bill  pending  before  Con- 
gress, with  amendments.  A  position  assumed  by  us  under  a 
full  conviction,  that  such  were  the  sentiments  of  a  majority  of 
those  whom  we  represented.  Also  to  vindicate  and  sustain 
the  action  of  the  convention  in  the  series  of  twenty-odd  reso- 
lutions which  they  adopted.  How  far  I  may  have  succeeded 
you  and  the  public  must  judge.         Very  respectfully, 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 


ADDRESS 

Of  Ex-Gov.  Aaron  V.  Brown,  to  the  Law  Class  of  the  Univer- 
sity, at  Lebanon,  February  Ihth,  1853. 


Gentlemen  : — I  salute  you  as  candidates  for  admission  into 
one  of  our  most  learned  and  attractive  professions  :  one  that 
in  every  civilized  age,  has  exerted  the  greatest  influence  on 
society,  furnishing  to  human  liberty  some  of  her  ablest  cham- 
pions, and  to  religion  many  of  her  most  eminent  votaries,  It 
has  stamped  its  peculiar  image  so  distinctly  on  nearly  every 
country  in  Europe,  that  the  bar,  without  any  great  hyperbole, 
may  be  almost  denominated  the  nation.  In  England  especially, 
no  sovereign  ever  has  been,  or  will  be  able  to  exempt  himself, 
in  any  great  degree,  from  dependence  on  this  profession. 
From  it  must  be  selected  his  Lord  Chancellors,  the  equity  and 
common  law  Judges  of  his  superior  courts,  his  ecclesiastical 
and  colonial  Judges,  and  a  long  train  of  other  judical  func- 
tionaries. From  it  also  have  come  her  most  eminent  states- 
men and  orators,  who  have  immortalized  her  Parliaments,  and 
made  British  diplomacy  the  most  successful  in  the  world. 

The  influence  and  triumphs  of  the  legal  profession  have 
been  scarcely  less  signal  in  our  country.  In  the  old  Congress 
that  framed  the  Constitution,  and  in  the  State  conventions  that 
ratified  it,  the  men  of  this  profession  stood  out  in  advance, 
overpeering  all  others  in  extent  and  variety  of  learning,  and  in 
that  bold  and  thrilling  eloquence  which  the  occasion  so  much, 
demanded.  If  the  mind  flashes  over  a  few  brilliant  names  as 
exceptions  to  these  remarks,  because  they  are  exceptions, 
they  but  confirm  the  well  merited  compliment  to  the  founders 


ADDRESS    TO   LAW   STUDENTS.  347 

of  the  Republic.  It  has  furnished  every  President  of  the 
United  States  except  two,  Generals  Washington  and  Taylor. 
It  has  supplied  a  majority  of  every  Cabinet,  and  a  long  line 
of  Attorneys  General.  So  it  has  done  all  the  Judges  of  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  of  the  respective  States. 

Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  profession,  and  such  its  honors 
and  emoluments,  which  you  are  proposing  to  enter.  Its  prizes 
are  large  and  captivating.  Ambition  itself  could  not  ask  that 
they  should  be  more  so.  But  they  are  not  to  be  won  as  in  a 
lottery,  by  mere  chance.  If  they  were,  they  would  scarcely 
be  worth  the  winning.  If  they  were,  dolts  might  be  Lord 
Chancellors,  and  blockheads  fill  the  places  of  a  Marshall,  a 
Kent,  or  a  Story.  There  must  be  no  chances  reckoned  on  in 
the  case.  They  must  be  the  certain  rewards  of  patience,  in- 
dustry >  perseverance,  and  above  all,  of  a  high  resolve  of  the 
mind,  to  be  content  with  no  mediocrity  of  attainment.  Who 
would  be  contented  with  mere  mediocrity  ?  To  throng  the 
courts  without  a  brief,  a  fee,  or  a  client,  and  above  all,  not  to 
deserve  one  !  By  you,  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  an  institution  like  this,  the  very  word  mediocrity 
should  be  scorned.  Nothing  less  than  a  proficiency  which 
would  qualify  you  for  any  office  or  station  in  life,  should  satisfy 
your  lofty  aspirations.  Some  of  you  may  have  to  plead  in  the 
courts  where  the  full,  clear  and  persuasive  eloquence  of  a 
Grundy  still  holds  its  magic  spells  over  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers  ;  or  where  the  fervid  genius  and  profound  learning  of 
a  Haywood,  or  the  close  and  rigid  logic  of  Crabb  and  William 
L.  Brown,  would  rebuke  that  indolence  which  would  fall  below 
the  master  spirits  of  the  law  of  an  age  just  gone  by.  I  allude 
to  them  because  they  are  now  no  more,  and  because  the  voice 
of  eulogy  cannot  be  mistaken  for  that  of  adulation.  In  this 
age  you  must  not,  you  dare  not  fall  below  such  high  standards. 
It  is  the  age  of  progress — of  improvement  in  every  science, 
in  every  art,  in  every  profession.  He  who  stands  still,  or  idly 
lingers  on  the  way;  will  find  the  tide  sweeping  by  him 
leaving  him  "  high  and  dry,"  on  the  shore  of  neglect  and 
disappointment.  It  is  this  very  progress  which  has  founded 
the  present  institution;  which  has  drawn  to  it  our  most  emi- 


848  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

nent  scholars  and  jurists,  and  opened  up  to  you  and  for  you 
advantages  nowhere  surpassed  in  our  country. 

In  former  times,  even  the  men  whose  names  I  have  called  up 
for  your  just  emulation,  enjoyed  no  such  facilities  as  are 
now  daily  spread  before  you.  In  some  crowded  office,  and 
under  the  guidance  of  some  preceptor  in  full  practice,  and 
therefore  obliged  to  be  neglected — with  access  to  fewer 
books  than  are  now  sometimes  referred  to  in  a  single  case — 
they  groped  their  way  through  the  intricate  mazes  of  early 
study.  But  with  stout  hearts  and  noble  resolves  they  struggled 
on,  until  in  spite  of  every  obstacle,  they  attained  an  eminence 
worthy  of  all  imitation.  Contrast  your  present  condition  with 
theirs.  In  a  quiet  and  secluded  village,  already  remarkable 
for  the  literary  and  moral  habits  of  its  population,  with  pro- 
fessors distinguished  for  their  ability,  and  unencumbered  by 
other  engagements  to  distract  and  divert  their  attention,  and 
with  access  to  vast  stores  of  legal  knowledge,  you  have  the 
means  which  enable  you  to  walk  forth  from  this  institution 
the  compeers,  the  proud  rivals  of  the  graduates  from  any  other 
institution  in  America. 

I  take  it  for  granted  that  you  stand  in  need  of  no  persua- 
sion to  induce  you  to  profit  by  the  favorable  means  here  af- 
forded. I  suppose  you  to  have  come  here  for  that  very  pur- 
pose, and  not  because  you  did  not  know  very  well  where  else 
to  go,  or  what  else  to  do,  than  to  while  away  a  session  or  two 
at  the  law  school  at  Lebanon  !  I  feel  that  I  have  before  me 
to-day  no  such  genteel  idler,  in  whose  soul  the  fires  of  genius 
and  ambition  have  been  extinguished  so  early  in  his  career. 
The  indolent  lounger,  with  his  volatile  and  frivolous  mind,  has 
no  business  with  this  profession.  He  had  better  turn  aside  at 
once  to  the  lighter  pursuits  and  employments  of  the  day.  He 
who  undertakes  to  master  this  first  and  noblest  of  human 
sciences,  must  bring  to  the  great  work  the  fixed  and  unaltera- 
ble determination  to  be  emphatically  and  truly  a  student  of  the 
law.  He  must  not  count  on  merely  skimming  over  it,  com- 
prehending a  few  only  of  its  general  principles,  and  acquiring 
some  slight  familiarity  with  its  details  in  practice.  No,  he  must 
dive  into  its  hidden  depths — penetrate  deep  into  its  secret  arca- 
na, and  bring  up  the  pure  and  sparkling  water  from  the  very 
bottom  of  the  well  of  knowledge. 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS,  349 

The  entrance  or  start  upon  a  hard  and  intricate  study  like 
this,  is  both  irksome  and  discouraging.  But  the  rich  rewards 
that  lie  before  you  and  beckon  you  onward,  should  rouse  you  up 
to  vigorous  and  incessant  effort.  What  other  profession  is  there 
less  intricate  and  difficult  which  can  yield  you  an  equal  or  larger 
amount  of  remuneration  ?  What  one  will  advance  you  to 
higher  stations  of  honor  and  profit?  What  one  can  open  to 
you  a  wider  field  of  benevolence  and  usefulness,  inscribing  your 
name  high  upon  the  scroll  of  fame  as  one  of  the  great  benefac- 
tors of  mankind  ?  But  the  start  is  not  so  difficult  as  it  at  first 
appears.  He  who  gazes  on  the  lofty  mountain  peering  up  before 
him,  can  scarcely  believe  that  he  can  ever  scale  and  pass  its 
towering  summit.  But  he  approaches  it  by  degrees.  One 
lesser  elevation  after  another  is  overcome,  until  at  last  he  finds 
himself  at  the  top,  breathing  its  pure  atmosphere,  and  won- 
dering by  what  easy  gradations  he  had  attained  it. 

In  the  study  of  the  law,  there  is  generally  too  great  a  desire 
to  hurry  through  with  it,  and  make  an  advent  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible into  the  arena  of  its  practice.  Precipitancy  has  often 
proven  fatal  to  sensitive  and  ingenuous  minds.  A  few  blunders 
in  practice,  or  a  mortifying  failure  in  the  argument  of  some 
important  case,  rashly  engaged  in,  may  be  followed  by  chagrin 
and  disappointment  which  may  never  be  overcome.  No  per- 
suasion of  friends,  no  counsel  of  the  wise  and  experienced, 
can  restore  him  to  confidence  in  himself,  and  he  abandons  in 
mortification  a  profession  which,  with  less  eagerness,  he  might 
have  honored  and  adorned.  How  much  better  for  him  not  to 
have  laid  aside  his  elementary  books  so  soon,  nor  to  have  hur- 
ried so  hastily  into  the  court  in  order  to  make  a  premature  dis- 
play in  harranguing  a  jury.  He  should  have  remained  con- 
tented in  the  retirement  of  study,  "  biding  his  time,"  until 
ripe  in  his  full  course  of  preparation,  he  could  have  realized 
his  own  expectations  and  those  of  his  waiting  and  admiring 
friends.  That  full  course  of  preparation  will  admit  of  no  pre- 
cipitancy with  impunity.  It  takes  too  wide  a  range.  It  em- 
braces law  in  its  widest  and  most  comprehensive  sense.  The 
laws  of  God — of  nature — of  nations — of  independent  States  ; 
under  the  latter,  the  common  law — the  statute  law — constitu- 
tional law — the  commercial  law — the  law  of  real  estate— of 


350  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

descents — the  criminal  law.  In  fine,  it  embraces  all  laws, 
human  and  divine,  and  challenges  the  profound  study  of  }rears 
to  understand  and  expound  them.  Beside  the  subjects  of  direct 
and  intense  study,  there  are  others,  collateral  or  incidental  to 
them,  that  must  by  no  means  be  neglected. 

The  law  student  should  make  himself  well  acquainted  with 
history,  ancient  and  modern.  It  is  there  that  he  must  learn 
the  origin  of  those  laws  which  are  the  daily  subjects  of  his 
meditation — the  occasions  which  called  them  forth,  and  their 
beneficial  or  injurious  tendencies  after  their  enactment.  It 
should  not  be  studied,  however,  as  a  mere  chronology  of  past 
events.  In  what  year  some  battle  was  fought,  or  at  what  pre- 
cise period  an  illustrious  Prince  was  called  to  the  throne,  can 
be  of  but  little  importance  compared  with  the  great  principles 
by  which  he  advanced  his  people  to  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness, or  sunk  them  still  lower  in  the  scale  of  despotism.  It 
should  be  read  in  order  to  trace  out  the  rise  and  progress  of 
our  most  important  institutions — the  advances  of  mankind  at 
different  periods  of  the  world,  in  education,  in  the  sciences,  in 
the  arts,  both  useful  and  ornamental.  The  study  of  history  is 
eminently  important  to  the  student  of  law  in  our  own  country. 
Our  form  of  government,  and  the  institutions  which  it  estab- 
lishes, have  been  so  recently  founded,  that  no  statesman,  no 
judge,  no  lawyer,  no  man  of  education  should  be  deficient  in 
their  history.  He  should  especially  be  familiar  with  our  revo- 
lutionary history  ;  with  the  discussions  and  events  that  led  to 
the  first  confederation  of  the  colonies  ;  with  the  debates  on 
the  formation  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  its  subsequent 
adoption  by  the  States  ;  with  the  debates  in  Congress  on  the 
leading  topics  since  that  period.  All  these  illustrate  the  true 
nature  of  our  government,  and  can  scarcely  fail  to  inspire  us 
with  the  warmest  sentiments  of  admiration  and  devotion  to  it. 

It  is  upon  such  studies  as  these,  that  we  have  to  rely  much 
for  the  arrest  of  that  spirit  of  change  and  innovation  which  is 
one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  present  period  of  our  national 
existence.  We  are  no  enemy  to  real  improvement  in  every 
thing  :  in  law,  in  jurisprudence,  and  in  government.  But  we 
should  advance  with  caution,  and  nothing  but  the  surest  con- 
victions should  tempt  us  to  leave  the  beaten  track  of  our  an- 


ADDRESS    TO    LAW   STUDENTS.  351 

cestors.  The  founders  of  the  republic  attempted  to  raise  bar- 
riers against  this  fondness  for  change,  by  the  adoption  of  con- 
stitutions so  difficult  of  amendment  and  alteration,  that  such 
could  seldom  be  effected  without  a  general  concurrence  of 
public  sentiment.  How  long  these  barriers  will  prove  sufficient, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell.  The  close  observer  can  distinctly  see 
that  reverence  for  constitutional  law  is  fast  diminishing,  and 
every  pretext  for  its  evasion  is  eagerly  adopted.  The  device 
of  enlarging  and  expanding  that  instrument  by  the  doctrine  of 
constructive  powers,  has  proved  successful  on  several  import- 
ant occasions,  and  the  insidious  avowal,  now  too  distinctly  an- 
nounced to  be  overlooked  or  disregarded,  that  there  is  a  law 
above  and  higher  than  the  Constitution,  threatens  to  abrogate 
it  altogether.  These  two  doctrines,  whilst  they  differ  in  the 
mode  of  getting  clear  of  constitutional  restraints,  yet  agree  in 
their  results.  Great  liberality  of  construction,  it  is  well  known, 
will  give  to  it  much  of  that  elasticity  which  the  disorganizing 
spirit  of  the  age  seems  imperiously  to  demand.  It  would  then 
admit  of  nearly  every  thing  which  a  licentious  and  dominant 
majority  might  demand.  Still,  cases  may  arise  and  have  arisen, 
where  latitudinarian  doctrines  would  prove  inadequate  to 
the  purposes  designed ;  for  there  are  some  things  so  plainly 
incorporated,  such  as  "  the  protection  of  life,  liberty  and  pro- 
perty," that  no  sophistry  can  evade  them.  It  is  then  that  the 
higher  law — that  new  invention  of  the  age,  interposes,  in  order 
to  complete  the  fatal  work  of  constitutional  evasion  and  dese- 
cration. Under  this  doctrine,  if  it  should  practically  and  finally 
prevail,  the  whole  structure  of  the  American  government  must 
inevitably  perish.  The  sentiment  now  often  and  publicly  in- 
voked, that,  in  a  free  government  like  ours  organic  or  consti- 
tutional laws  are  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  majorities,  who 
ought  to  have  the  power  to  pass  all  laws  whatever,  will  then 
supersede  all  constitutions.  The  rapid  growth  and  dangerous 
progress  of  this  latter  sentiment,  may  be  seen  in  the  public 
odium  now  heaped  upon  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which 
erects  the  veto  power  as  the  only  barrier  against  invasions 
upon  the  rights  of  the  minority.  So  great  is  that  odium  that 
many  demand  its  total  obliteration  from  the  Constitution ;  whilst 
others  are  content  with  its  practical  annihilation  by  withhold- 
24 


352  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES.  m 

ing  its  exercise,  even  to  prevent  the  most  obvious  violation  of 
that  sacred  instrument.     I  advert  to  this  alarming  state   of 
tilings,  not  in  reference  to  the  prevailing  conflicts  of  parties, 
but  to  impress  it  on  your  minds  to  read  thoroughly  the  consti- 
tutional history  of  your  country,  so  that  you  may  form  a  just 
and  enlightened  opinion  upon  them.     You  will  find  in  your 
researches,  that  the  school  in  which  was  taught  the  doctrine  of 
a  close  and  rigid  construction  of  the  Constitution,  was  founded  in 
that  part  of  the  country  that  then  swayed  the  sceptre.     It  was 
taught,  against  all  the  blandishments  of  power,  exhibiting  the 
rare  example  of  a  triumphant  majority  seeking  to  erect  bulwarks 
around  the  citadel  of  the  Constitution  to  protect  it  against 
their  own  invasions.     They  looked  forward  to  the  time  when 
the  republic  would  probably  extend  from  ocean  to  ocean :  when 
instead  of  thirteen,  some  thirty  or  forty  States  might  compose 
it.     They  knew  not  what  great  and  diversified  interests  might 
conflict  with  each  other ;  and  when  the  one  or  the  other  pre- 
vailed, they  knew  not  what  consuming  fires   of  revenge   and 
hatred  might  be  generated  in  the  conflict.     But  this  they  knew, 
that  the  Constitution  that  had  been  framed,  if  honestly  con- 
fined to  the  powers  conferred,  would  do  as  well  for  many,  as 
for  a  few  States :  for  States  reposing  on  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific,  as  well  as  those  that  stretched  along  the  Atlantic  ;  and 
that  if  the  Constitution  secured  all  alike  in  the  enjoyment  of 
life,  liberty  and  property,  no  conflict  of  interests,  no  diversity 
of  climate  could  retard  them  in  the  march  of  greatness  and 
glory.     The  sceptre  of  power,  however,  has  now  passed  over 
to  another  region.     Its  transfer  to  the  North  should  bring  no 
regret,   if  the  new  hands  that  are  now  to  wield  it  will  recog- 
nise the  doctrine  of  a  strict  adherence  to  the  plain  letter  and 
obvious  meaning  of  the  Constitution.     But  unfortunately  they 
exhibit  few  signs  of  doing  so,  but  promulgate  with  daring  bold- 
ness that  there  should  be  no  veto  against  the  vote  of  a  ma- 
jority of  Congress,  and  no  Constitution  when  in  conflict  with 
the  higher  law  of  the  consciences  of  those  who  hold  abstract 
opinions  in  opposition  to  its  provisions. 

But,  gentlemen,  the  acquisition  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  law  is  scarcely  more  important  than  an  easy,  graceful  and 
pleasing  manner  of  communicating  it  to  others.     You  will 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS,  353 

have  spent  years  almost  in  vain,  if  you  have  neglected  the  art 
of  speaking.  I  do  not  mean  that  mouthing  faculty  that  can 
barely  communicate  an  idea,  but  that  noble  faculty  which  at 
once  arrests  the  attention  and  wins  the  favor  of  your  hearers. 
To  speak  well  you  must  think  well ;  you  must  comprehend 
clearly  the  great  points  of  your  case,  and  concentrate  the 
highest  powers  of  your  mind  upon  them.  What  you  compre- 
hend clearly,  you  will  be  apt  to  express  well;  and  what  you 
feel  strongly  yourself,  you  will  most  probably  urge  with  power 
and  eloquence  on  others.  The  finished  orator  at  the  bar,  in 
the  pulpit,  in  the  senate  chamber,  or  the  lecture  room,  must 
be  master  of  logic  and  rhetoric.  Logic  is  the  science,  rhetoric 
the  pleasing  manner  or  style,  and  eloquence  the  matter  of 
speaking.  The  two  former  are  therefore  auxiliary  to  the  last, 
and  the  three  combined  have  exalted  man  above  all  other  at- 
tainments and  achievements  in  life. 

By  eloquence  we  do  not  mean  mere  words  or  sentences  of 
fine  language  void  of  solid  sense  ;  a  magnificent  display  of 
gestures  and  apostrophes  without  point  or  meaning  ;  but  that 
eloquence  which  we  recommend  to  your  unceasing  study  is 
founded  on  thought,  on  sentiment,  expressed  with  the  terseness 
of  logic,  the  grace  of  rhetoric,  and  which  kindles  up  and  then 
controls  all  the  hidden  fires  and  passions  of  our  nature.  How 
to  acquire  this  highest,  I  had  almost  said  this  more  than  human 
art,  I  know  not,  but  by  reading  often  and  studying  closely  the 
orations  of  its  great  masters.  I  disclaim  all  mere  imitations 
of  either  the  dead  or  the  living.  If  there  be  eloquence  in  you, 
nature  will  bring  it  out  in  some  form  or  manner  that  will  be 
your  own.  Still,  by  consulting  the  great  masters  we  are  assisted 
in  attaining  to  that  standard  which  Cicero  has  laid  down,  "  to 
speak  to  the  purpose — to  speak  clearly  and  distinctly — to 
speak  gracefully."  The  selection  of  models,  not  to  make  but 
to  improve  your  style,  should  be  left  to  your  own  peculiar  taste 
and  judgments.  And  why  should  you  not  have  models  for  this 
purpose  ?  The  painter  as  well  as  the  sculptor  has  his.  The 
architect  has  his.  Why  then  may  not  the  orator  go  to  Greece 
and  Rome,  to  England  and  France,  or  to  America,  for  models 
which  have  filled  the  world  with  admiration  ?  Demosthenes 
and  Cicero  among  the  ancients  were  so  eloquent,  that  they 


354  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

have  inspired  eloquence  in  all  who  describe  them.  In  England, 
Burke,  Chatham,  Fox,  Sheridan  and  Lord  Brougham ;  in  Ire- 
land, Curran,  Grattan,  Emmet ;  in  the  United  States,  Patrick 
Henry,  John  Randolph,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  William  Wirt, 
John  C.  Calhoun,  Daniel  Webster,  Felix  Grundy,  and  Henry 
Clay,  are  all  admitted  models  of  the  highest  order.  I  speak 
not  of  the  pulpit  models,  whose  fame  has  justly  filled  the  civil- 
ized world,  but  whose  theme  so  little  resembles  yours  as  not 
to  be  equally  useful  in  their  study.  But  I  must  be  permitted 
to  recommend  to  you  those  models  from  whom  the  pulpit  ora- 
tors have  drawn  all  their  inspiration — the  models  of  the  Bible. 
Study  these — the  Prophets — the  Apostles — our  Saviour's  great 
sermon  on  the  mount.  To  say  nothing  of  their  moral  effect, 
they  will  be  found  to  improve,  enlarge,  and  to  exalt  your  foren- 
sic efforts.  But  remember,  after  all  your  study  under  the  best 
models,  the  great  secret  of  being  eloquent  is  to  feel  yourself, 
deeply  and  sincerely,  what  you  wish  to  impress  on  others.  To 
reach  the  heart  your  language  must  flow  from  the  heart.  That 
must  dissolve  first,  or  your  language  will  fall  cold  and  power- 
less on  your  hearers.  Hence  it  is  that  the  truly  great  orator 
must  preserve  his  moral  sensibilities  pure  and  uncontaminated. 
He  must  love  truth.  He  must  honor  virtue.  He  must  hate 
vice  and  all  its  deformities.  He  must  sympathise  truly  and 
deeply  with  the  weak  and  the  oppressed.  He  must  loath  des- 
potism and  tyranny  in  every  form  and  shape  in  which  they  have 
ever  oppressed  mankind.  In  short,  to  be  great  he  must  be 
eloquent,  and  to  be  eloquent  he  must  be  good.  With  such 
elements  of  character,  he  will  speak  as  an  oracle  and  a  pro- 
phet. Like  a  strong  man  he  will  pull  down  the  pillars  of  pre- 
judice, and  his  utterance  will  be  like  the  stone  hurled  from  an 
engine.  To  the  sentiments  and  will  of  such  a  man  all!  hearts 
are  surrendered  in  profound  obedience  and  homage. 

To  cultivate  an  art  so  essential  to  the  profession  you  have 
selected — an  art  so  ethereal,  so  God-like — should  challenge 
your  highest  assiduity.  No  difficulties  should  appal,  no  indo- 
lence retard  you.  Demosthenes  was  no  orator  by  nature. 
Cicero  studied  long  and  hard  under  the  best  masters.  Chat- 
ham practiced  all  his  life  before  his  mirror.  Lord  Brougham 
rehearsed  a  single  oration  for  six  weeks  before  he  delivered  it. 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS.  355 

Whitefield,  and  Wesley,  and  many  others,  had  to  pass  the 
same  laborious  pilgrimage,  and  richly  were  they  rewarded  by 
a  deathless  name,  an  immortality  of  honor. 

Gentlemen,  my  work  would  be  but  half  accomplished,  were 
I  to  leave  you  with  these  observations  on  the  mere  study  of 
your  profession.  Much,  therefore,  remains  to  be  submitted  to 
you  in  relation  to  its  pursuit  and  practice.  When  you  shall 
have  acquired  the  requisite  amount  of  learning,  and  passed 
that  ordeal  which  attests  it,  you  will  enter  upon  the  great  the- 
atre of  the  world  to  act  a  noble  part,  I  hope,  in  the  grand 
drama  of  life.  It  will  be  to  you  an  important  and  critical  mo- 
ment in  your  existence.  Your  friends  are  now  looking  with 
solicitude  upon  you  whilst  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  your 
studies.  They  will  watch  with  intense  interest  your  advent 
into  the  world.  You  will  have  to  guard  in  some  degree  against 
their  anxiety  to  precipitate  you  into  the  arena  in  cases  not 
suited  to  display,  or  on  occasions  not  well  calculated  to  enable 
you  to  realize  their  expectations. 

Before  you  begin,  you  must  selectyour  residence,  your  home. 
In  doing  this,  you  will  sometimes  be  controlled  by  circumstan- 
ces, so  obvious  and  proper,  that  they  need  not  be  here  alluded 
to.  But,  as  a  general  rule,  I  would  say,  strike  for  the  capital! 
for  some  great  commercial  city,  or  some  densely  populated  re- 
gion, of  wealth,  intelligence  and  trade.  In  other  words,  go 
where  there  is  something  to  do.  Fear  no  obstacle.  Cower  to 
no  dread  of  competition.  If  there  be  great  lawyers  already 
there,  they  will  furnish  you  with  high  standards  of  rivalry  and 
emulation.  If  they  seem  too  numerous,  remember  that  the 
demands  of  political  life  and  the  high  honors  of  the  bench  will 
be  constantly  thinning  them  out.  Besides  these,  bear  it  in 
mind  that  successful  practice  brings  opulence,  which  is  sure  to 
be  followed  by  that  desire  of  ease  which  will  make  room  for 
fresh  candidates  for  fortune  and  for  fame.  Success  in  a  loca- 
tion so  selected  is  the  more  desirable,  because  it  will  become 
your  permanent  residence  for  life.  You  will  not  then  be  com- 
pelled to  move  from  the  village  in  which  you  started,  because 
you  have  outgrown  its  business  and  population.  It  is  one  of 
the  great  laws  of  genius  and  ambition  to  seek  for  situations 


356  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

commensurate  with  their  conscious  power  of  usefulness  and 
display. 

Having  selected  your  place  of  residence,  your  next  step  will 
be  to  procure  you  an  office.  This  will  be  your  sanctum  sancto- 
rum, at  least  one  room  of  it,  where  no  genteel  idler  is  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  while  away  an  indolent  hour,  or  to  kill  time  at  an 
innocent  game  of  cards  or  back-gammon,  and,  least  of  all,  to 
take  a  "  gentlemanly  spree"  in  term  time  or  out  of  term  time. 
Into  that  consecrated  place  let  none  enter  save  yourself,  your 
books  and  your  clients.  Receive  your  friends  cordially  in 
some  other  room,  and  when  the  demands  of  social  life  are  sat- 
isfied, withdraw  to  your  place  of  study,  with  no  apprehension 
that  either  the  wise  or  the  good  will  ever  be  dissatisfied  with 
your  devotion  to  business.  The  time  spent  at  lawyers'  offices, 
frequently,  in  idle  and  unprofitable  discourse  and  amusement, 
if  devoted  to  earnest  and  indefatigable  research,  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  make  even  the  dullest  of  our  attorneys  proficients  in 
one  of  the  noblest  sciences  in  the  world. 

Your  residence  chosen  and  your  office  selected,  you  should 
betray  no  over  anxiety  to  begin.     Wait  until  a  proper  cause 
and  occasion  shall  demand  it.     Having   made  your  arrange- 
ments for  a  lifetime,  and  having  a  living  consciousness  within 
you  that  you  possess  the  high  elements   necessary  to  ensure 
success,  you  can   afford  to   wait  until   some  case  of  insulted 
virtue  or  down-trodden  poverty,  shall  demand  your  services. — 
At  such  a  call,  walk  forth  in  the  majesty  of  your  profession, 
and  deal  the  blows  of  a  young  giant  upon  the  head  of  insolence 
and   oppression.     Catch  the  inspiration    to  do  so   from  the 
strong  sense  of  virtue  and  justice  which  is  in  your  own  heart, 
following  the  example  of  Patrick  Henry  and  many  others  un- 
der similar  circumstances.     I  repeat,  catch  the  inspiration  from 
your   own  bosom;  cultivate   habitually  the  love  of  virtue,  of 
right,  of  justice,  of  all  the  moral  and  religious  duties.     Scorn 
what  is  ignoble    and  vicious — detest  fraud  and  hypocrisy — 
loathe  oppression  and  tyranny  in  every  form  and  shape  you 
may  meet  with  them,  and  denounce  them  with  words  that  will 
burn  and  blast  them.     All  this  will  be  especially  necessary,  if 
you  ever  become  effective  and  eloquent  advocates.     There  is 
no  branch  of  the  profession  so  important  as  what  is  commonly 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS.  357 

called  the  criminal  practice.  It  places  the  life  and  liberty  of 
your  fellow  creatures  in  a  good  degree  into  your  keeping.  In 
capital  cases,  the  responsibility  is  immense.  The  vital  spark 
is  committed  to  your  hands,  to  preserve  it  alive  or  extinguish  it 
forever  One  argument  omitted,  it  is  lost — one  bold,  fervid, 
eloquent  appeal,  and  it  is  saved.  To  make  such  an  appeal, 
the  advocate  must  feel  what  he  says ;  it  must  come  from  him 
with  a  heart  heaving,  and  a  lip  quivering  with  genuine  emo- 
tion ;  no  sickly,  morbid  sentimentality  will  serve  the  great  occa- 
sion. He  must  fully  realize  the  prisoner's  sad  and  helpless 
condition.  The  sweetness  of  human  life — the  value  of  the 
immortal  soul  that  may  be  lost  and  ruined  by  being  ushered 
prematurely  into  another  world,  with  all  its  sins  green  and 
blooming  upon  it.  Thoughts  and  sentiments  like  these,  caught 
from  the  Book  of  God,  that  great  fountain  of  knowledge  of 
what  pertains  to  the  immortality  and  grandeur  of  the  human 
soul,  may  enable  him  to  rescue  his  victim  from  the  deadly 
grasp  of  his  pursuers.  There  is  no  prouder  triumph,  no 
sweeter  pleasure  than  is  enjoyed  by  the  successful  advocate 
in  capital  cases.  He  feels  that  he  has  baffled  the  malice  of 
enemies ;  that  he  has  snatched  his  client  sometimes  from  the 
very  jaws  of  perjury;  that  he  has  overcome  the  unconscious 
prejudices  of  both  judge  and  jury;  that  by  the  magic  power 
of  eloquence  he  has  converted  the  infuriated  cry  of  the  multi- 
tude for  his  crucifixion  into  a  long  and  exulting  shout  at  his 
deliverance. 

The  natural  ardor  of  youth  will  induce  you  to  desire  a  large 
or  full  practice  at  the  very  beginning  of  your  career.  Such 
success  would  probably  prove  the  grave  of  all  high  future  emi- 
nence. Immersed  in  cases,  many  of  them  of  no  great  impor- 
tance, either  as  it  relates  to  the  amount  involved  or  the  com- 
pensation to  be  received,  you  would  necessarily  be  deprived  of 
the  opportunity  still  farther  to  prosecute  your  studies,  and  to 
dive  yet  deeper  into  the  profound  mysteries  of  the  law.  More 
especially  should  not  this  fullness  of  practice  be  sought  by  un- 
dervaluing yourselves  in  the  acceptance  of  fees  below  the 
usual  standard  of  compensation.  You  must  ever  remember 
that  you  have  not  repaired  to  the  precincts  of  the  court  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  making  money — of  groioing  rich  upon  the  er- 


358  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

rors  and  vices  of  mankind.  In  so  ignoble  an  aim  sheer  ava- 
rice could  have  pointed  out  to  you  many  avenues  more  likely  to 
ensure  your  success. 

To  a  genteel  competency,  even  to  affluence,  you  will  be  en- 
titled; but  let  it  be  an  agreeable  incident,  not  the  chief  object 
of  your  toils  and  labors.  The  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the  ele- 
vation of  the  moral  and  intellectual  standard  of  society,  will 
be  far  more  ennobling  to  you  than  the  acquisition  of  sordid 
gain.  It  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  to  estimate  the  vast 
amount  of  useful  knowledge  disseminated  by  a  good  lawyer  in 
the  course  of  a  long  practice.  His  contributions  to  the  judge 
on  the  bench  will  be  felt  and  acknowledged  by  him  in  almost 
every  trial.  They  will  be  seen  in  the  profound  attention  of 
juries,  and  in  their  rendition  of  verdicts  responsive  to  the  intel- 
ligent and  able  argument  he  has  submitted.  The  thousands 
who  throng  the  courts  from  day  to  day,  and  who  hang  with 
eager  attention  on  his  speeches,  return  to  their  homes  with 
minds  improved,  with  sentiments  of  reverence  and  respect  for 
the  laws  and  institutions  of  their  country  enlarged,  and  with 
unbounded  admiration  for  the  advocate  who  has  thus  inspired 
them  with  fresh  incentives  to  virtue  and  patriotism.  To  such 
a  man  the  church, looks  when  her  altars  are  invaded.  The 
State  calls  upon  him  when  some  great  constitutional  subject  is 
to  be  expounded.  Whatever  individual  in  the  city,  the  field, 
or  the  workshop,  shall  find  his  rights  invaded  or  his  liberty  as- 
sailed, hastens  to  him  for  redress,  and  hails  with  confidence 
and  joy  the  alacrity  with  which  he  espouses  his  cause.  Such  a 
man  cannot  remain  a  very  long  time  in  the  practice.  The 
flood-tide  of  public  admiration  will  bear  him  upwards  to  the 
bench,  to  the  senate  chamber,  or  to  be  some  high  minister  of 
State,  enlarging  the  circle  of  his  influence,  and  from  a  more 
commanding  eminence,  shedding  the  light  of  his  devotion  to 
learning,  to  justice  and  good  morals  farther  and  wider  around 
him. 

Gentlemen,  we  indulge  the  pleasing  hope  that  each  one  of 
you  is  emulous  of  the  fame  of  such  a  lawyer  as  we  have  just 
described.  We  suppose  you  to  have  overcome  all  the  obsta- 
cles of  preparatory  study — that  you  have  been  fortunate  in 
the  selection  of  your  place  of  residence,  and  that  clients  begin 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS.  '       359 

to  come  freely  if  they  do  not  throng  about  your  office.  Still 
we  should  be  unkind  and  negligent  of  our  duty  on  this  occa- 
sion if  we  did  not  warn  you  that  your  trials  and  difficulties  are 
not  yet  ended :  a  new  class  of  difficulties,  not  at  all  resembling 
those  we  have  heretofore  considered.  They  result  from  the 
new  associations  which  you  must  form  on  entering  into  the 
crowded  temple  of  justice.  Associations  with  those  clients 
whose  causes  you  have  espoused — with  the  witnesses  on  both 
sides  who  are  to  testify  in  them — with  the  judge  who  is  to  pre- 
side over  them — with  the  opposite  counsel  whose  duty  it  will  be 
to  baffle  you  if  he  can  at  every  turn,  and  drive  you  and  your 
cause  if  possible,  with  mortification  and  much  cost,  out  of 
court.  How  delicate,  how  various,  how  responsible  these  new 
relations  !  Were  we  to  venture  one  general  counsel,  to  be  ap- 
plied to  this  whole  class  thus  grouped  together,  without  enter- 
ing on  details,  we  would  simply  advise,  that  with  every  body 
— clients,  witnesses,  judges  and  adversary  counsel — on  all 
occasions,  in  consultation,  on  trial,  during  periods  of  defeat 
and  disaster  as  well  as  of  success  and  triumph,  resolve  to  be 
the  gentleman ;  to  speak  like  one — to  act  like  one — to  feel  like 
one.  If  native  instinct  does  not  prompt  you  to  do  so,  let  your 
high  and  polished  education,  and  the  proud  inspirations  of 
your  profession,  hold  you  up  to  the  lofty  elevation  of  the  true 
gentleman.  The  true  gentleman  never  passes  a  deliberate  in- 
sult, and  never  submits  to  one.  He  exhibits  no  insolence  to 
inferiors,  and  never  allows  it  from  either  equals  or  superiors. 
He  never  will  exult  over  a  prostrate  enemy,  nor  in  hours  of 
defeat  and  disaster,  which  must  some  time  come  to  all  practi- 
tioners, allow  himself  to  become  peevish  and  insulting  to  those 
whose  good  fortune  it  may  have  been  to  succeed  over  him. 

Apply  this  general  counsel  in  the  first  instance  to  your  inter- 
course with  your  own  clients.  They  have  paid  a  most  agreea- 
ble, perhaps  the  highest,  compliment  by  selecting  you  as  their 
advocate.  Let  then  no  clumsiness  of  narrative,  no  repetition 
of  immaterial  circumstances,  no  tediousness  of  detail  in  the 
history  of  their  wrongs,  induce  you  to  grow  impatient  or  un- 
civil. Had  they  the  same  powers  of  perspicuous  condensation 
which  it  has  cost  you  many  years  to  acquire,  they  might  not 
have  stood  in  need  of  your  services.     Nor  should  you  betray 


360  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

or  feel  irritation  when,  in  the  pendency  of  a  cause,  your  anx- 
ious and  excited  client  shall  too  frequently  enquire  when  it  will 
be  tried,  or  whether  witnesses  who  have  importuned  him  for 
the  privilege  may  stay  away  till  the  morrow,  or  shall  trouble 
you  with  the  gossip  of  the  streets  about  the  probable  result  of 
the  trial.  In  all  such  cases,  the  true  gentleman  listens  with 
patience,  answers  with  brevity,  but  kindness,  and  then  passes 
on  to  his  business ;  sympathizing  with  the  anxiety  of  his  cli- 
ent, who,  whilst  he  annoys,  yet  honors  and  respects  him. 

There  is,  however,  a  single  case  which  challenges  from  the 
counsel  no  such  mildness  and  forbearance.  When  in  the  origi- 
nal consultation,  or  in  some  subsequent  disclosure,  the  client 
shall  avow  that  he  knows  that  justice  is  not  on  his  side,  but  that 
he  is  seeking  an  advantage  which  accident  has  laid  in  his 
way,  in  order  to  gratify  some  hateful  passion  of  his  nature ; 
the  pure-minded  and  virtuous  advocate  should  spurn  him  from 
his  presence,  and  withdraw  from  a  cause  rendered  infamous 
by  his  own  disclosures.  We  place  upon  record  a  case  some- 
what analagous  to  the  counsel  we  have  here  given.  An  emi- 
nent lawyer,  the  late  Judge  Kelly,  had  been  employed  in  a  suit 
of  slander,  then  pending  in  one  of  our  courts.  On  the  day  of 
trial,  his  client  met  him  in  the  street  as  he  was  passing  to  the 
court  room,  and  remarked  to  him,  that  it  was  not  so  much  to 
argue  the  main  merits  of  his  cause,  that  he  had  employed  him, 
as  it  was  to  abuse  and  vilify  the  opposite  party;  "  And  so,"  re- 
plied the  indignant  counsel,  "  you  mistook  me  for  a  blackguard, 
and  I  take  you  for  a  knave,  and  abandon  you  and  your  cause 
together." 

Let  us  next  apply  this  general,  I  might  say  this  universal 
rule,  to  your  examination  and  comments  upon  the  testimony  of 
witnesses.  For  the  time  being,  they  are,  in  a  great  degree,  in 
your  power.  They  are  in  some  sort  your  prisoners,  and  there- 
fore, upon  the  great  law  of  honor,  they  are  entitled  to  your  for- 
bearance, if  not  your  protection.  Wantonly  to  assail  them,  is 
cowardice.  You  have  a  right,  and  it  is  your  duty,  to  subject 
them  to  the  most  searching  enquiry — one  which,  by  its  close- 
ness, would  imply  a  high  degree  of  suspicion.  If,  however, 
you  detect  no  luridng  or  misleading  partiality — no  faint  foot- 
prints of  perjured  knavery — having  passed  the  ordeal  of  your 


ADDRESS  TO  LAW  STUDENTS.  361 

genius  and  talents,  the  witness  is  fairly  entitled  to  your  liberal 
and  generous  comments.  You  should  cast  no  ungenerous 
sneers  at  him  because  he  happens  to  be  a  witness  on  the  oppo- 
site side.  You  may  be  wounding  a  sensibility  as  tender  and 
delicate  as  your  own,  and  inflicting  a  stain  upon  a  character 
dear  to  him  as  life,  and  on  a  family  whose  head  and  represen- 
tative he  is,  which  no  time  can  obliterate.  If,  however,  the 
witness  comes  before  the  court  under  suspicious  circumstan- 
ces, and  manifests  little  or  no  reverence  for  the  high  sanctions 
under  which  he  is  testifying — if  he  fairly  subjects  himself  to 
the  imputation  of  having  given  false  testimony,  then  hold  him 
up  to  the  scorn  and  detestation  of  all  mankind.  Let  no  words 
of  burning  denunciation  be  left  unuttered,  which  might  prove 
a  warning  to  others. 

That  you  should  always  act  the  part  of  a  polished  and  fin- 
ished gentleman  with  your  brethren  of  the  profession,  is  so 
clear  a  duty  that  it  need  scarcely  be  mentioned.  That  you 
should  do  so  with  your  adversary  during  the  progress  of  a 
cause,  is  of  the  highest  importance.  Never  take  offence  at 
what  he  may  say  or  do,  unless  you  are  well  satisfied  that  it  was 
intended.  He  feels  bound  to  exhibit  much  zeal  in  behalf  of, 
and  in  some  sort  to  identify  himself  with,  his  client.  So  do 
you ;  and  whilst  both  shall  do  so  within  the  bounds  of  profes- 
sional courtesy,  no  offence  ought  to  be  taken  by  either.  But 
it  is  a  great  law  of  the  profession,  that  each  attorney  shall  be 
left  to  fix  for  himself  that  degree  of  identity,  and  his  adversary 
is  never  allowed  to  exceed  it  by  attempting  to  attach  to  him 
any  odium  that  may  have  fallen  on  his  cause  in  the  progress  of 
the  trial.  Such  an  attempt,  for  its  intrinsic  injustice,  would 
place  you  beyond  the  pale  of  professional  honor,  and  ought  tw 
strike  your  name  from  the  time-honored  and  unsullied  roll,  on 
which  stand  recorded  the  most  illustrious  names  of  ancient 
and  of  modern  time. 

But  there  is  no  one  to  whom  uniform  deference  and  respect 
should  be  so  perpetually  manifested  as  to  the  court.  The 
Judge  is  the  representative  of  that  noble  science  which  you 
venerate  and  honor.  The  ermine  which  adorns  him  should 
admonish  you  never  to  forget  what  is  due  to  his  exalted  station 
and  office.     Approach  him  without  presumptuous   familiarity 


362  CONGRESSIONAL  AND  OTHER  SPEECHES. 

on  the  one  hand,  or  servile  humiliation  on  the  other.  Your 
own  self-respect  would  forbid  the  latter,  whilst  the  former 
might  call  down  upon  you  the  most  painful  and  mortifying  re- 
pulse. In  all  your  addresses  to  him  be  brief,  lucid  and  to  the 
point.  Do  not,  with  a  dogged  pertinacity,  travel  over  ground 
which  others  have  gone  over  before  you;  and  above  all,  do  not 
deluge  the  court  with  principles,  and  cases,  and  authorities 
which  no  one  has  been  known  to  deny  for  the  last  half  a  cen- 
tury !  Act  towards  him  on  the  fair  and  reasonable  presump- 
tion that  he  has  at  least  some  tolerable  knowledge  of  the  law, 
and,  therefore,  it  cannot  be  necessary  to  torture  him  with  such 
frequent  recurrence  to  the  mere  rudiments  of  the  profession. 
Pass  over  all  these.  March  directly  up  to  the  strong  points  of 
the  case.  Seize  upon  them — grapple  with  them — illustrate 
them  by  great  principles — fortify  them  by  authorities,  and  thus 
bear  your  client  and  his  cause  triumphantly  through  the  court. 
And  now,  gentlemen,  I  have  concluded  all  that  my  leisure 
allowed  me  to  prepare,  and  all  indeed  that  it  seemed  to  me 
the  occasion  demanded.  I  have  only  to  add,  yonder  is  the 
Temple.'  Her  gates  are  wide  open  to  receive  you.  A  long  line 
of  great  and  good  men  have  passed  in  before  you.  The  light 
of  their  footsteps  will  guide  you  to  her  altars.  These  learned 
professors  who  have  instructed  you  so  carefully,  this  throng  of 
admiring  friends,  and  above  all,  your  own  high  resolves,  in- 
vite you  to  enter  in  and  receive,  as  I  hope  each  of  you  may  do, 
her  highest  honors  and  her  richest  rewards. 


PART  III. 

MESSAGES,  REPORTS,  AND  OTHER  DOCUMENTS. 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 


Of  Hon.  A.  V.  Brown,  delivered  on  the  15th  October,  1815,  on 
his  Instalment  as  Governor  of  Tennessee. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  * 

and  House  of  Representatives : 

In  presenting  myself  before  you  on  the  present  occasion,  I 
feel  very  deeply  impressed  by  the  solemnities  which  we  have 
just  witnessed.  The  transitions  of  power  from  one  dynasty  to 
another  in  the  old  world  have  rarely  been  effected  without  rev- 
olution and  bloodshed.  There,  the  triumph  of  the  one  party 
is  too  often  the  destruction  of  the  other,  leaving  the  great 
masses  of  the  people  but  little  benefited  by  the  change  of  do- 
minion. In  our  own  free  and  happy  form  of  government  it  is 
wholly  different.  Here,  the  great  popular  principle  is  recog- 
nized in  its  full  force,  "  that  all  power  is  inherent  in  the  peo- 
ple, and  all  free  governments  are  founded  on  their  authority 
and  instituted  for  their  peace,  safety,  and  happiness."  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that  this  was  the  first  great  truth  uttered  by 
the  illustrious  men  who  framed  the  Constitution  of  Tennessee. 
It  seems  to  have  been  uppermost  in  their  minds,  and  to  have 
burst  forth  in  advance  of  all  their  noble  and  patriotic  senti- 
ments. 

It  is  under  the  influence  of  this   cardinal  principle  that  we 
have  just  witnessed  the   surrender  of  all  the  executive  power 


366  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

and  authority  of  the  State  by  my  distinguished  predecessor ;  a 
surrender  so  peaceably  and  promptly  made  that  it  must  consti- 
tute one  of  the  highest  eulogiums  on  our  representative  form 
of  government.  But  in  presenting  myself  before  you  and  this 
large  assembly,  for  the  purpose  of  assuming  the  high  office 
from  which  he  has  just  retired,  I  must  be  permitted  to  express 
my  deep  and  abiding  gratitude  to  those  by  whom  it  has  been 
bestowed.  To  a  station  so  exalted  and  responsible  I  should 
never  have  aspired,  but  for  the  unanimous  call  of  my  fellow- 
citizens  in  convention  assembled.  Most  earnestly  did  I  desire 
the  nomination  of  some  other  individual  more  able  to  vindicate 
and  sustain  the  great  principles  involved  in  the  recent  elec- 
tion. Not  that  I  then  was  or  ever  could  be  insensible  to  the 
high  honor  of  presiding  over  such  a  noble  and  gallant  State  as 
Tennessee.  She  is  the  land  of  my  youth,  the  home  of  my 
manhood.  I  have  traversed  her  in  all  her  borders ;  and  I  feel 
to-day  a  proud  consciousness  that  I  love  her,  not  more  for  her 
physical  grandeur,  her  lofty  mountains,  her  deep  majestic  riv- 
ers, her  wide  luxuriant  valleys,  than  for  the  moral  excellence  of 
her  brave,  and  hardy,  and  industrious  people.  To  preside  over 
such  a  State,  and  to  contribute  any  thing  valuable  to  the  pros- 
perity of  such  a  people,  ought  to  kindle  up  the  fires  of  a  virtu- 
ous ambition  in  the  bosom  of  any  man  living.  But,  gentle- 
men, whilst  I  freely  admit  the  full  influence  of  an  emotion  like 
this,  I  trust  you  will  allow  me  to  declare  the  most  unfeigned 
distrust  of  my  abilities  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  high  of- 
fice which  I  am  about  to  assume.  Fidelity  and  zeal  in  the  dis- 
charge of  those  duties,  and  the  most  anxious  and  earnest  de- 
sire to  advance  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  every  individual 
member  of  our  beloved  Commonwealth,  without  reference  to 
the  party  to  which  he  may  belong,  must  be  the  only  pledge 
which  I  can  offer  my  countrymen  for  this  distinguished  mark 
of  their  preference  and  confidence. 

The  duties  to  which  I  allude  are  embraced  in  the  compre- 
hensive but  solemn  oath  which  you  will  presently  cause  to  be 
administered,  faithfully  "  to  support  the  Constitution  of  this 
State  and  of  the  United  States."  In  general  terms,  to  support 
these,  is  to  support  all  the  high  principles  of  rational  liberty 
and  representative   government — the  liberty  of  speech — the 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  367 

freedom  of  the  press — the  rights  of  conscience,  of  property 
and  reputation — the  purity  of  our  elections,  and  the  implicit 
obedience  of  the  representative  to  the  vvill  of  his  constituents. 
It  is  not,  however,  in  relation  to  these  great  cardinal  principles 
of  government  that  the  practical  difficulty  of  the  American 
statesman  may  be  expected  to  arise.  The  oath  which  you  are 
about  to  administer  to  support  not  only  the  Constitution  of  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  but  of  the  United  States,  imposes  a  double 
allegiance,  challenging  my  most  unreserved  obedience  to  both 
governments.  It  is  the  danger  of  collision  between  them  that 
constitutes  the  precise  point  of  difficulty  and  embarrassment. 
In  anticipation  of  the  bare  possibility  of  such  an  event,  it  be- 
comes my  duty  to  declare  the  principles  on  which  I  should  feel 
bound  to  act — to  declare  them  here  in  your  presence — to  de- 
clare them  now,  at  the  very  beginning  of  my  administration, 
and  at  the  very  moment  when  I  contract  the  obligation  of  this 
double  allegiance. 

Rightly  understood  and  fairly  construed,  I  hold  collisions  be- 
tween Federal  and  State  Governments  to  be  utterly  impossi- 
ble. The  wise  men  who  framed  the  former,  seem  to  have  stu- 
diously and  incessantly  guarded  against  such  an  event.  They 
knew  well  that  in  the  political  as  well  as  in  the  physical  world, 
where  equal  powers  meet,  a  fearful  and  dreadful  pause  must 
ensue.  They  therefore  weighed  and  considered  with  profound 
anxiety  every  line  and  word  inserted  into  our  Federal  Consti- 
tution. In  the  States  to  which  this  instrument  was  submitted 
for  adoption,  the  most  distinguished  statesmen  and  jurists  em- 
ployed all  their  talents  and  learning  in  an  animated  and  fear- 
less discussion  of  its  provisions.  The  result  of  all  this  care 
and  patriotic  labor,  was  to  throw  additional  safeguards  around 
the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  by  declaring  that  "  the  powers 
not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  pro- 
hibited by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respect- 
ively, or  to  the  people." 

This  amendment  should  have  rendered  every  thing  easy  and 
harmonious  in  the  operations  of  our  political  system.  It  should 
have  established  it  as  a  maxim  in  the  creed  of  every  American 
statesman,  never  to  claim  for  the  Federal  Government  any 
power  which  was  not  expressly  granted  in  the  Constitution,  or 

25 


3  $3  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

which  did  not  necessarily  or  properly  belong  to  the  execution 
of  an  express  power.  It  was  for  the  establishment  of  this 
great  rule  of  construction,  that  Jefferson  and  Madison,  and  the 
Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798,  so  earnestly  contended. 

But  unfortunately  for  the  country,  another  school  of  politi- 
cians rose  up  co-eval  with  the  Constitution,  insisting  on  an  ad- 
ditional class  of  implied  powers,  with  no  limitation  but  the 
wild  discretion  of  Congress,  and  guided  by  no  object  but  the 
vague  and  indefinite  notion  of  "the  general  welfare." 

It  has  been  this  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  mode  of  con- 
struing the  Federal  Constitution,  that  has  laid  the  foundation 
of  all  the  party  struggles  of  this  country.  The  establishment 
of  a  United  States  Bank,  the  enactment  of  a  Protective  Tariff, 
without  regard  to  revenue,  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of 
the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  the  assumption  of  the  debts  of 
the  States,  the  suppression  of  the  liberty  of  speech,  under  the 
pretext  of  preserving  the  freedom  and  purity  of  our  elections, 
have  all  depended  on  a  latitudjnous  construction  of  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution.  The  present  occasion  will  by  no  means  al- 
low of  an  extensive  reference  to  any  of  these  subjects;  but 
the  questions  of  a  Bank  and  the  Tariff  enter  so  deeply  into 
the  political  discussions  of  the  day,  that  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  submitting  a  few  observations  on  them. 

In  relation  to  the  Bank,  the  great  fact  that  no  power  for  its 
creation  is  to  be  found  in  express  terms  in  the  Constitution,  has 
often  been  adverted  to.  But  another  fact,  scarcely  less  impor- 
tant, has  been  strangely  neglected.  That  fact  is,  that  the 
journals  of  the  convention  show  clearly  that  such  a  power  was 
often  asked  for  and  as  often  refused,  in  every  form  in  which  it 
could  be  presented.  There  is  a  potency  in  this  recorded  fact, 
second  only  to  the  silence  of  the  Constitution,  which  ought  to 
have  long  since  overthrown  all  the  feeble  implications  so  much 
relied  on  by  the  advocates  of  such  an  institution.  Beside  this, 
a  power  so  vast  and  mighty  as  this  is,  should  never  have  been 
left  to  mere  implication  at  all.  It  should  have  stood  out  in 
advance  of  aU  others,  and  have  been  rendered  undoubted  by 
its  boldness  and  conspicuity. 

It  was  but  a  poor  evasion  of  the  constitutional  objection  to 
have  located  the  bank  in  the   District  of  Columbia.    If  Con- 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  369 

gress  has  the  power  of  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  that  Dis- 
trict, it  must  be /or  it  as  well  as  in  it — local  in  its  objects,  and 
territorial  in  its  action. 

To  seize  on  a  power  granted  for  such  limited  and  special  pur- 
poses, and  expand  it  over  a  mighty  continent,  is  a  shameless 
perversion,  a  fraudulent  usurpation — far  more  wicked  than  the 
boldest  interpolation  of  that  instrument  could  be.  The  pre- 
tence so  often  relied  on,  that  a  bank  was  necessary  and  proper, 
(and  therefore  constitutional,)  as  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  gov- 
ernment, is  fully  exposed  by  the  fact  that  the  bank  never  was 
charged  with  the  collection  or  disbursement  of  the  revenue  at 
all.  The  most  that  could  ever  have  been  said  of  its  fiscal 
agency  would  have  been  that  it  was  charged  with  the  simple 
custody  of  the  funds  during  the  brief  period  between  their  col- 
lection and  disbursement.  1  repeat,  therefore,  what  I  have  be- 
fore said  in  another  place,  that  this  alleged  fiscal  necessity  is 
a  false  pretence,  for  the  experiment  has  now  been  made  and 
the  fact  tested,  that  the  government  has,  and  can  collect,  keep 
and  disburse  its  own  revenues,  without  the  aid  of  any  bank 
whatever — an  experiment  which  Washington  adopted  by 
signing  the  act  of  1792,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  subsequently  re- 
commended and  declared  to  be  entirely  practicable. 

But  1  forbear  any  further  observations  on  the  subject  of  a 
bank.  I  have  referred  to  it  only  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating 
my  opinions  more  fully  as  to  the  mode  of  construing  one  of  the 
constitutions  which  1  am  presently  to  swear  that  I  will  faith- 
fully support.  I  say  nothing  of  the  expediency — nothing  of  its 
dangerous  and  corrupting  tendencies — nothing  of  that  full  and 
ample  refutation,  which  time  and  experience  have  given  to 
the  argument,  that  exchanges  could  not  be  regulated,  nor  a 
sound,  uniform  currency  be  given  to  the  country,  without  such 
an  institution.  All  these  topics  belong  not  to  the  occasion,  nor 
is  their  discussion  necessary  in  order  to  make  known  my  opin- 
ions to  my  fellow-citizens  of  the  State. 

In  relation  to  the  Tariff,  1  have  always  maintained  that  its 
rates  were  too  high,  its  discriminations  unjust,  and  that  it 
ought  to  be  modified  and  greatly  reduced.  The  agricultural 
States  have  suffered  much  already,  and  nothing  but  the  warmly 
cherished  hope  that  it  will  soon  be  repealed  or  greatly  modified;, 


370  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

has  subdued  the  murmurs  of  the  consuming  classes.  I  am 
fully  aware  of  the  arguments  usually  employed  to  prove  that 
the  people,  so  far  from  being  injured,  are  really  benefited  by 
the  high  duties  of  the  Tariff;  but  I  know  not  which  most  to 
condemn — the  impudence  which  could  fabricate,  or  the  credu- 
lity which  could  be  imposed  upon  by  them.  Strong  as  this  lan- 
guage may  seem,  I  nevertheless  entertain  no  hostility  to  the 
manufactures  of  the  United  States.  I  cherish  for  the  valuable 
and  important  ones  the  very  highest  regard,  and  would  cheer- 
fully give  to  all  any  advantage  incidental  to  the  collection  of 
our  national  revenue.  I  look  forward  with  confidence  to  the 
next  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  make  such  modifica- 
tions and  alterations  in  the  present  Tariff,  as  will  make  the 
system  impartial  and  honest.  That  dissatisfaction  which  is 
now  felt  with  its  provisions  in  many  quarters  will  then  be  sup- 
pressed, and  those  deep  feelings  of  attachment  which  are  cher- 
ished by  nearly  our  whole  population,  in  favor  of  the  perpetua- 
tion of  our  blessed  Union,  will  then  acquire  renewed  energy 
and  strength. 

Passing  now,  gentlemen,  from  those  subjects  on  which  the 
Federal  and  State  governments  have  heretofore  conflicted — 
and  which  lay  too  directly  in  my  way  to  be  omitted — I  desire 
to  submit  a  few  observations  in  relation  to  our  State  govern- 
ment in  particular.  The  condition  of  our  affairs  at  home, 
challenges  our  most  anxious  attention.  Our  legislatures  have 
yet  much  work  to  do  to  enable  the  people  to  enjoy  all  the  bles- 
sings which  a  wise  use  of  our  free  institutions  can  certainly  se- 
cure. The  preservation  of  our  public  credit  stands  out  amongst 
the  foremost  of  all  our  duties.  Every  liability,  whether  pru- 
dently or  imprudently  contracted,  should  be  met  with  most 
scrupulous  punctuality.  In  individul  life  many  apologies  may 
be  urged  for  the  want  of  this  virtue  which  can  find  no  parallel 
in  the  public  engagements  of  a  great  and  prosperous  State  like 
ours.  To  meet  these  liabilities  with  ease  and  without  proba- 
ble inconvenience  to  the  people,  I  shall,  in  some  future  com- 
munication to  you,  invite  your  attention  to  the  establishment 
of  a  sinking  fund  adequate  to  the  liquidation  of  our  outstand- 
ing liabilities  at  the  respective  periods  when  they  may  fall  due. 
The  bank  of  the  State  has  heretofore  been  much  relied  on,  by 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS.  371 

the  profitable  operations  of  its  concerns  to  meet  these  liabili- 
ties. However  this  may  be,  it  cannot  be  amiss,  in  my  opinion, 
to.  bring  to  its  aid  all  the  other  means,  short  of  additional  tax- 
ation, which  the  State  may  have  at  its  disposal.  Amongst 
these,  none  can  be  more  commendable  than  the  most  rigid 
economy  in  the  administration  of  the  government  of  the  State. 

Economy  in  your  own  expenditures — in  the  length  or  dura- 
tion of  your  session — in  the  execution  of  the  necessary  public 
printing — and,  in  fact,  in  all  the  subjects  of  expenditures  which 
are  immediately  connected  with  your  legislative  deliberations. 
Economy  also  in  the  executive  and  judicial  departments,  car- 
ried to  the  utmost  extent  compatible  with  the  administration  of 
justice  and  a  faithful  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  land.  It 
will  be  a  part  of  my  duty  under  the  Constitution,  "to  take  care 
that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed,"  and  I  can  assure  you  that 
no  portion  of  my  duty  will  be  more  agreeable  than  that  which 
shall  be  performed  in  sustaining  the  public  credit  unimpaired 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  in  carrying  out  any  system  of  en- 
lightened and  just  economy  which  your  wisdom  may  advise. 

For  many  years  the  true  friends  of  our  liberal  institutions 
have  earnestly  desired  the  establishment  in  our  State  of  a  wise 
and  efficient  system  of  public  instruction.  As  friends  to  reli- 
gion and  pure  morals,  they  cannot  repress  the  hope  that  the  day 
is  not  far  distant  when  every  individual  within  our  borders  shall 
be  capable  of  reading  and  understanding  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
of  transacting  his  own  business,  and,  if  necessary,  of  instruct- 
ing his  own  offspring  in  the  rudiments  of  learning.  I  rejoice 
that  a  salutary  feeling  like  this  now  seems  to  pervade  our 
whole  population,  reaching  every  hamlet  within  the  limits  of 
our  fertile  and  extensive  territory.  The  patient  and  meritori- 
ous schoolmaster  must  now  go  abroad  through  the  land  on 
his  errand  of  labor  and  love,  dissipating  the  darkness  in  which 
so  many  minds  are  enveloped.  It  is  on  the  education  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  that  our  hopes  of  preserving  and  per- 
petuating our  liberties  must  be  founded.  The  knowledge  to 
understand  is  as  essential  as  the  spirit  to  defend  our  republi- 
can institutions.  With  a  continual  and  rapid  increase  of  our 
numbers,  what  else  can  be  expected  but  anarchy  and  misrule, 
unless  we  provide  that  science  and  literature  shall  maintain 


372  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS, 

their  ascendency  over  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  freedom, 
who  are  through  future  time  to  control  the  destinies  of  the  re- 
public !  In  the  enlargement  and  improvement  of  our  present 
partial  system  of  education,  I  here  offer  freely,  and  with  all  my 
heart,  my  humble  and  unceasing  co-operation. 

The  present  seems  to  be  a  suitable  occasion  to  offer  you  my 
congratulations  on  the  recent  annexation  of  the  republic  of 
Texas  to  the  United  States.  It  has  been  accomplished  by  no 
invasion  on  the  rights  of  Mexico,  and  in  a  manner  which  can 
give  no  just  cause  of  offence  to  any  other  nation.  It  has  been 
effected  not  by  the  sword,  but  a  simple  covenant  or  contract 
between  coterminous  nations,  speaking  the  same  language, 
accustomed  to  the  same  political  institutions,  and  whose  com- 
mon object  was  more  effectually  to  secure  to  themselves  all  the 
blessings  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  It  ought  to  be  regarded 
by  the  friends  of  freedom  every-where  but  as  another  triumph 
of  rational  liberty  and  representative  government  over  the  de- 
grading despotisms  of  the  old  world. 

All  the  forebodings  of  evil  to  our  country,  as  likely  to  occur 
from  the  consummation  of  the  deed,  have  been  signally  disap- 
pointed. As  yet  we  can  discover  no  sign  of  the  displeasure  of 
Heaven  in  consequence  of  it.  The  earth  is  still  putting  forth 
its  verdure,  and  blessing  the  husbandman  with  the  rich  abun- 
dance of  its  fruits,  whilst  peace,  and  health,  and  general  pros- 
perity are  everywhere  smiling  upon  a  great  and  prosperous 
people.  Our  bright  and  glorious  Union,  too,  whose  shattered 
and  broken  fragments  were  everywhere  to  have  met  the  eye 
of  the  heart-stricken  patriot,  still  bespans  the  continent, 
stretching,  like  the  rainbow  of  hope  and  of  promise,  from  the 
great  inland  seas  of  the  North  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  the 
South.  The  incredible  prophesy,  that  a  convention  was  to  be 
held  in  this  beautiful  city,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  work  of 
national  destruction,  has  failed  of  its  fulfillment,  and  the  illus- 
trious citizen  who  was  to  have  presided  over  the  guilty  assem- 
bly has  gone  down  to  the  grave  with  his  last  prayer  trembling 
on  his  lips  for  the  Union  and  his  country. 

"With  the  acquisition  of  Texas  and  the  successful  mainten- 
ance of  our  title  to  Oregon,  the  United  States  will  present  a 
spectacle  of  territorial  grandeur  and  magnificence  unequaled 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS, 


3^3 


in  the  world.  In  those  who  have  charge  of  our  negotiations 
in  relation  to  the  latter  country,  I  have  unbounded  confidence ; 
and  I  believe  they  would  not  retain  more  of  it,  if  they  could, 
than  we  are  fairly  entitled  to.  I  am  equally  certain  they  will 
never  surrender  one  square  acre  of  it  to  the  unjust  demand  of 
any  nation  on  the  earth.  Far  distant  as  it  may  now  seem  to 
be,  every  revolving  year  will  increase  its  importance  to  the 
hundred  millions  of  freemen,  who,  at  no  distant  day,  will  in- 
habit our  continent.  In  the  order  of  Providence,  America  may 
become  the  last  asylum  of  liberty  to  the  human  family.  Here 
then  let  us  rear  her  loftiest  temple.  Let  us  lay  its  foundations 
deep  and  wide  for  the  millions  who  in  after  ages  may  worship 
at  her  altars. 

I  turn  now  from  the  contemplation  of  our  wonderful  and  in- 
creasing magnificence,  in  order  to  remind  you  of  a  great  and 
sad  calamity  which  has  befallen  our  common  country  since 
you  were  last  assembled  on  an  occasion  like  this.  But  a  few 
months  have  passed  away  since  you  in  particular,  and  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  generally,  were  called  upon  to  mourn 
the  departure  from  our  midst  of  our  most  illustrious  citizen. — 
The  immortal  spirit  of  Andrew  Jackson,  the  patriot,  the  sol- 
dier and  the  statesman,  has  passed  from  time  to  eternity — de- 
voted, until  he  breathed  his  last  breath,  to  the  best  interests  of 
his  country,  which  he  had  defended  with  heroic  fortitude  and 
courage,  and  served  with  a  zeal  more  fervid  with  increasing 
years,  he  finished  the  great  work  which  a  wise  Providence  had 
chosen  him  to  perform,  and  accomplished  his  destiny.  Cling- 
ing to  the  faith  and  the  hope  which  sustain  the  Christian  whilst 
he  is  "  passing  through  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death," 
he  died  at  peace  with  the  world,  leaving  behind  him  a  bright 
and  enduring  example,  worthy  the  imitation  of  future  genera- 
tions. Hereafter,  the  song  of  the  poet  will  be  heard  in  praise 
of  his  memory — the  pen  of  the  historian  will  chronicle  the 
deeds  which  he  achieved,  whilst  the  painter  and  the  engraver 
will  transmit  his  image  to  admiring  millions. 

Let  Tennessee,  his  own  adopted  State — Tennessee,  whose 
armies  he  has  so  often  covered  with  glory — Tennessee,  whom 
he  honored,  and  loved,  and  served  so  long  and  so  faithfully — 
Tennessee,  beneath  whose  green  and  hallowed  sod  his  mortal 


374  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

remains  have  been  deposited — let  Tennessee  rear  him  a  mon- 
ument lasting  as  time — let  it  be  planted  in  or  near  one  of  her 
most  beautiful  cities,  on  the  bank  of  the  noblest  river  in  the 
world,  where  the  millions  who  will  pass  for  ages  and  ages  to 
come,  may  pause  and  gaze  upon  it  with  wonder  and  admira- 
tion. 


MESSAGE 

Of  Gov.  Aaron  V.  Brown,  Delivered  to  the  General  Assembly 
Nov.  Ytki  1845. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Senate 

and  House  of  Representatives : 

In  the  11th  section  of  the  3rd  article  of  the  Constitution,  it 
is  made  the  duty  of  the  Executive,  from  time  to  time,  "  to  give 
the  General  Assembly  information  of  the  state  of  the  govern- 
ment and  recommend  to  their  consideration  such  measures  as 
he  shall  judge  expedient."  The  performance  of  the  duty  by 
my  predecessor  at  the  commencement  of  your  pressent  session, 
seems  not,  in  the  former  practice  of  the  State,  to-^tpersede  the 
necessity  of  a  similar  communication  from  me.  ^Whilst  it  was 
the  evident  policy  of  those  who  engrafted  this  provision  into 
the  Constitution  to  establish  the  utmost  freedom  in  the  inter- 
change of  opinion,  it  wisely  left  the  legislature  at  full  liberty 
finally  to  adopt  or  reject  the  recommendations  of  the  Executive 

This  fact  greatly  diminishes  the  responsibility  of  the  present 
communication,  made  at  a  period  so  early  in  my  administra- 
tion, as  to  furnish  ample  apology  for  any  errors  which  it  may 
be  found  to  contain.  It  has  often  been  found  in  the  history  of 
all  popular  governments,  that  every  party  succeeding  to  power 
is  too  anxious  to  signalize  its  triumph  by  some  bold  and  novel 
policy  calculated  to  attract  attention,  but  not  always  to  ad- 
vance the  permanent  interests  and  welfare  of  the  people. 
Human   government,    whether    of  families  or  communities, 


376  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS 

should,  however,  in  my  opinion,  be  in  few  things  more  distin- 
guished than  in  its  uniformity  and  stability.  It  is  not  within 
the  competency  of  government  to  effect  such  great  and  sudden, 
and  at  the  same  time,  salutary  improvements  in  the  condition 
of  the  people,  as  many  vainly  imagine.  These  are  the  pro- 
ducts of  time  and  experience,  aided  by  all  the  lights  which  the 
history  of  our  race  can  shed  upon  the  science  of  jurisprudence. 
Guided  by  these  lights  in  the  legislation  of  our  own  beloved 
commonwealth,  I  would  especially  recommend  to  you  to  pass 
no  laws  in  the  rash  spirit  of  adventure,  and  to  overturn  no  set- 
tled policy  of  the  State  but  on  full  and  mature  conviction  of 
its  propriety. 

One  of  the  subjects  of  settled  policy  in  the  State  I  consider 
to  be,  the  almost  entire  abolition  of  the  punishment  of  death. 
It  is  one  which  I  have  long  advocated  under  the  most  solemn 
convictions  of  its  propriety,  and  should  witness,  with  infinite 
pain,  any  attempt  to  recede  from  the  enlightened  humanity  of 
the  age.  The  gradual  amelioration  of  the  criminal  code  of 
Tennessee,  effected  as  it  has  been,  through  slow  degrees  for 
many  years,  has  added  another  proof  to  those  drawn  from  other 
countries  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment. 
Instead  of  weakening  it  has  evidently  increased  the  actual 
strength  of  the  government,  by  drawing  around  it  the  rational 
approbation  of  society,  and  by  the  explosion  of  those  ancient 
barbarities,  which  are  now  justly  regarded  with  the  deepest 
abhorence.  Nor  has  this  relaxation  tended  in  the  slighest  de- 
gree to  the  increase  of  crimes.  The  long  continued  confine- 
ments of  the  prison  house  and  the  degradation  of  becoming  the 
humble  vassals  of  the  turnkey  that  nightly  locks  them  in  their 
solitary  cell,  has  done  more  in  deterring  from  the  commission, 
of  crimes  than  the  fear  of  death,  wThich  men  always  behold  in 
distant  obscurity.  In  all  cases  authorized  by  law  and  justified 
by  their  circumstances,  I  shall,  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  com- 
mute the  punishment  from  death  to  imprisonment  for  life  in 
the  penitentiary.  Closely  connected  with  this  subject  is  the 
condition  and  management  of  our  State  prison.  Of  these,  it 
is  probable  you  are  already  informed  by  the  report  of  those 
having  charge  of  the  institution,  if  not  by  the  personal  inspec- 
tion of  one  of  your  committees.  I  have  heard  much  complaint 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE. 


377 


of  the  unusual  mortality  of  its  unfortunate  inmates,  within  the 
last  year  or  two.  If  this  be  owing  to  its  location  or  the  too 
crowded  condition  of  its  convicts,  I  know  well  with  what  readi- 
ness you  will  apply  every  corrective  in  your  power.  The  idea 
is  a  most  revolting  one,  of  holding  our  State  prisoners  in  con- 
finement under  circumstances  fatal  to  their  lives.  Even  as 
to  those  whose  punishment  is  inflicted  for  the  highest  offences, 
it  would  be  but  the  mockery  of  humanity  to  have  saved  them 
from  the  speedy  execution  of  the  halter,  only  to  subject  them 
to  the  more  tedious  but  fatal  visitation  of  the  fever.  If  the 
remedy  for  this  unusual  mortality  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  en- 
largement of  the  present  institution,  so  as  to  obviate  the  effects 
of  its  too  crowded  population,  I  respectfully  submit,  whether 
it  would  not  be  better  to  lay  the  foundation  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  institution  of  the  kind  in  the  Eastern  portion  of 
the  State.  When  that  was  done,  the  two  institutions  could 
occassionally  relieve  each  other  of  any  superabundance  ;  keep- 
ing each  with  only  such  a  number  as  would  be  consistent  with 
the  preservation  of  health,  and  the  profitable  employment  of 
their  labor.  Such  an  institution  suitably  located  in  East  Ten- 
nessee, it  is  believed,  could  furnish  employment  for  its  convicts 
in  iron,  marble,  &c,  which  would  not  bring  its  products  so 
much  in  competition  with  the  ordinary  mechanical  labor  of  the 
country  as  the  present  one  is  understood  to  do.  It  is  confidently 
asserted  by  many,  that  a  small  appropriation  for  the  building 
of  the  walls  and  erecting  some  of  the  cells,  for  immediate  use, 
would  be  all  that  is  necessarv.  After  that,  by  a  transfer  of  a 
reasonable  portion  of  the  present  convicts  to  that  point,  with 
the  aid  of  newly  arriving  accessions  to  their  number,  the 
whole  internal  structure  of  the  establishment  could  be  com- 
pleted without  much  further  expense  on  the  part  of  the  State. 
All  these  suggestions,  will,  however,  have  to  be  postponed  to 
the  now  almost  universally  received  opinion  that  the  labor  of 
all  the  convicts,  and  the  available  means  of  the  present 
institution,  will  have  to  be  applied  for  some  years  to  come 
to  the  erection  of  the  State  Capitol.  To  the  valuable  re- 
port lately  made  to  the  commissioners  appointed  to  super- 
intend the  erection  of  that  building,  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  I  beg  leave  to  refer  you,  for  much  useful  information, 


378  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

which  it  would  have  been  difficult  otherwise  to  have  procured. 

The  erection  of  the  State  Capitol,  I  am  happy  to  learn,  is  in 
fine  progress,  under  the  superintendence  of  an  accomplished 
architect,  whose  correct  taste  and  sound  judgment  was  singu- 
larly displayed  in  the  plan  which  he  furnished.  It  is  on  a  large 
and  commodious  scale,  well  worthy,  not  only  for  the  present, 
but  future  population  of  a  great  and  noble  State  like  Tennes- 
see. Whether  it  was  not  on  a  scale  too  magnificent  for  the 
present  resources  of  the  State,  is  now,  perhaps,  too  late  to  en- 
quire. It  has  been  adopted  by  the  board  of  commissioners  ap- 
pointed at  the  last  session,  approved  of  by  my  predecessor, 
and  is  now  in  the  course  of  due  execution.  Beside  the  aid 
which  can  be  derived  from  the  labor  and  means  of  the  peni- 
tentiary, I  recommend  such  additional  appropriation,  for  the 
purchase  of  materials,  &c,  as  will  keep  the  work  in  reasona- 
ble progress,  without,  however,  producing  any  serious  embar- 
rassment to  the  Treasury.  It  is  certainly  better  to  take  more 
time  for  its  completion,  than  to  involve  the  State  in  taxation  by 
a  too  liberal  application  of  its  funds. 

I  most  earnestly  recommend  to  your  favorable  regard  the 
Lunatic  Asylum,  and  the  institutions  established  bylaw  for  the 
benefit  of  the  blind  and  the  deaf  and  dumb.  All  these  were 
established  for  the  most  benevolent  and  charitable  purposes, 
and  appeal  directly  to  the  noblest  sympathies  of  the  heart  for 
their  advancement  and  promotion.  Man,  endowed  with  rea- 
son, stands  forth  the  proudest  and  noblest  work  of  Gold's  crea- 
tion, but  deprived  of  that  faculty,  he  sinks  down  into  utter 
helplessness,  the  pitiable  object  of  commiseration  and  charity. 
To  provide  for  the  recovery  of  many  and  the  safety  and  com- 
fort of  all  who  are  so  fatally  and  deeply  afflicted,  becomes  the 
first  duty  of  every  Christian  community.  Nearly  in  the  same 
condition  are  all  those,  who,  though  possessing  this  noblest 
faculty  of  our  species,  are  yet  deprived  of  some  of  those  great 
avenues  of  instruction  which  so  essentially  contribute  to  adorn 
and  perfect  it.  I  have  several  times  lately  enjoyed  the  pleasure 
of  being  present  at  the  exercises  of  one  of  these  institutions, 
(for  the  blind,)  when  I  found  myself  unable  to  decide  whether 
most  to  admire  the  wonderful  proficiency  of  the  pupils,  the 
skill  and  persevreance  of  the  preceptor,  or  the  zeal  and  enlight- 


GOVERNOR'S   MESSAGE.  379 

ened  liberality  of  many  distinguished  persons  of  both  sexes  in 
advancing  the  best  interests  of  the  establishment. 

On  a  recent  occasion  I  seized  on  the  opportunity  to   advert 
to  the  now  almost  universal  sentiment  in  the  State  in  favor  of 
the  establishment  of  an  enlightened  and  liberal  system  of  pub- 
lic instruction.     Not  such  a  one  as  will  pander  to  the  light  and 
dazzling  literature  of  the  age,  but  such  as  will  impart  useful- 
ness and  solid   value  to  our  industrious  and   hardy   people. 
There  can  be  no  necessity  for  here  remarking  on  the  value  and 
importance  of  such  a  system   if  it  can  be  established.     We 
have  one  already  too  partial  in  its  operation,  and  too  deficient 
in  its  organization,  because  too  contracted  in  its  means  to  ac- 
complishthe  above  objects.  How  shall  these  means  be  enlarged 
so  as  to  meet  the  sanguine  expectations  and  desires  of  the 
public  mind?     The  Executive  communication  of  the  present 
session  informs  us  that  "  there  are  more  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  children  in  the  State  between  the  ages  of  six  and 
twenty-one  years,  whilst  there  are  only  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  to  be  appropriated  to  common  schools."     This  gives 
us  only  forty  cents  per  annum  for  the  education  of  each  child 
of  the  State  within  those  ages.     If  you  strike  off  fifty  thousand 
of  this  number,  for  those  who  would  not  take  its  benefits,  even 
if  the  system  were  established,   it  would  then  leave  you  only 
fifty  cents  per  head,  per  annum.     The   suggestion  has  often 
been  made  that  to  supply   this  palpable  deficiency  of  funds, 
the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands 
of  the  United  States  should  take  place.     Estimating  these  pro- 
ceeds at  two  millions  per  annum,  and  that  Tennessee  would 
be  entitled  to  one-twentieth  part  of  the  same,  one-half  of  which 
could,  under  the  Constitution,  be  appropriated  to  education,  it 
would  only  give  us  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum,  or  twenty- 
five  cents  to  each  child  to  be  educated :  making  in  all,  with 
both  funds  combined,  the  sum  of  seventy-five  cents  for  each 
one  per  annum.     Now  it  must  be  evident  that  this   sum  is 
totally  insufficient  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  general 
and  comprehensive  common  school  system  in  the  State,  and  I 
am  free  to  acknowledge  that  I  know  of  no  means  of  materially 
increasing  it  at  the  present  time,  but  by  taxation  on  the  people. 
Public  sentiment,  I  believe,  has  never  yet  been  pronounced  on 


380  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

this  aspect  of  the  case.  All  the  popular  demonstrations  in 
favor  of  common  schools  have  been  made  on  the  supposition 
that  the  funds  requisite  for  their  establishment  were  to  be  de- 
rived from  some  other  source,  and  not  by  taxation  on  them- 
selves. Under  this  decided  conviction,  I  cannot  recommend 
the  increase  of  our  present  fund  by  a  further  resort  to  taxation, 
but  must  leave  the  subject,  with  such  additional  remarks  upon 
it,  as  you  will  find  in  another  part  of  this  message.  The  plans 
and  suggestions  there  made,  if  they  postponed  the  further  en- 
largement of  our  present  system  at  this  time,  may  (although 
at  a  period  more  distant  than  could  be  desired,)  ultimately 
furnish  a  fund  adequate  in  a  good  degree  to  the  wants  of  the 
country. 

In  relation  to  our  system  of  internal  improvements,  I  do  not 
know  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  trouble  you  with  many  ob- 
servations. The  able  report  of  the  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee appointed  to  settle  with  the  different  turnpike  companies, 
is  already  before  you,  and  contains  much  which  should  attract 
your  attention,  and  to  commend  the  zeal,  industry  and  ability 
of  that  committee.  Beneficial  as  the  present  improvements 
have  been,  there  are  others  which  claim  an  equal,  if  not  a 
greater  degree  of  public  favor  and  patronage.  To  say  noth- 
ing of  the  improvement  of  the  navigation  of  several  of  our 
rivers,  by  means  of  what  are  generally  termed  locks  and  dams, 
the  extension  of  the  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  railroad  from 
Chattanooga  to  Nashville  is  every  day  attracting  more  and 
more  of  public  attention.  However  important  I  consider  the 
latter  project,  I  can  by  no  means  recommend  the  issue  of  any 
further  State  bonds  or  securities  for  its  execution.  To  the 
granting  of  liberal  and  wisely  guarded  charters  to  individual 
companies,  I  think  there  can  be  no  good  objection.  It  is  high- 
ly probable  that  the  stocks  would  be  taken  by  individuals,  and 
thereby  several  of  our  most  important  streams  would  be  great- 
ly benefited,  and  the  road  under  consideration  be  extended  to 
Nashville,  passing  through  a  considerable  portion  of  the  State, 
and  bringing  with  it  almost  incalculable  advantages  to  the 
country.  A  connection  between  the  south  and  the  west  can 
no  where  be  more  easily  and  beneficially  effected.  The  pro- 
ject of  connecting  them  by  a  road  passing  through  the  north- 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  381 

em  portions  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  by  no  means  super- 
sedes the  propriety  of  the  proposed  road  from  Chattanooga, 
or  near  there,  to  Nashville.  I  should  regret  much  to  witness, 
in  the  slightest  degree,  a  spirit  of  rivalship  between  the  two 
projects.  Both  are  important  in  the  highest  degree,  and  both 
are  fairly  within  the  range  and  compass  of  execution,  by  indi- 
vidual capital  and  enterprise.  The  distance  between  Charles- 
ton and  Nashville  is  about  560  miles.  The  greater  part  of  the 
road  is  now  completed,  and  it  will  be  but  a  very  short  time  be- 
fore the  cars  will  be  regularly  passing  from  Chattanooga  to 
the  first  named  city.  From  Chattanooga  to  Nashville  is  about 
130  miles,  over  a  surface  remarkably  favorable  to  the  making 
of  such  a  road.  The  practicability  of  its  construction,  at  a 
cost  of  about  two  millions  of  dollars,  is  now  almost  universally 
conceded.  A  very  large  portion  of  the  labor  of  construction 
could  be  performed  by  farmers  and  other  persons  on  the  route, 
who  possess  no  mechanical  skill,  thereby  greatly  diminishing 
the  actual  outlay  of  money  in  its  completion.  The  increased 
value  of  property  at  the  two  termini  of  the  road  in  our  State, 
and  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of  it,  would  be  very  consid- 
erable, whilst  the  increase  of  agricultural  productions,  suita- 
ble for  southern  consumption,  would  be  almost  incalculable. 

The  occasion  will  not  allow  of  even  the  briefest  enumera- 
tion of  the  advantages  of  the  proposed  road  to  the  people  of 
the  eastern  and  middle  portions  of  the  State,  nor  of  the  con- 
siderations rendering  it  highly  probable  that  it  would  be  a  prof- 
itable investment  of  capital  to  the  stockholders.  I  must  con- 
tent myself,  therefore,  with  an  earnest  recommendation  that  a 
most  liberal  and  judicious  charter  be  granted  to  individuals 
for  its  construction. 

In  the  discharge  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  me,  the  neces- 
sity of  recommending  such  measures  as  will  secure  the  public 
credit,  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the  imposition  of  heavy 
burdens  on  the  people,  has  pressed  with  peculiar  force  upon  my 
mind.  I  am  gratified  to  know  that  in  reference  to  the  impor- 
tance of  making  ample  and  certain  provisions  to  meet  all  our 
liabilities  as  a  State,  there  is  but  one  sentiment  amongst  our 
constituents.  They  do  not  stop  to  enquire  into  the  wisdom  of 
the  original  measures  out  of  which  their  indebtedness  has 


382  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

grown,  but  knowing  the  existence  of  the  obligation,  they  ex- 
pect their  representatives  to  devise  the  most  effectual  and  the 
least  oppressive  means  in  their  power  to  maintain,  unimpaired, 
the  high  credit  which  their  State  has  ever  enjoyed.  With  an 
anxious  desire  that  their  reasonable  expectations  on  this  sub- 
ject may  not  be  disappointed,  I  will  proceed  to  lay  before  you 
the  result  of  my  deliberations. 

The  entire  indebtedness  of  the  State  may  be  stated  at  about 
three  millions  of  dollars — the  interest  required  annually  to  be 
paid  upon  it  is  about  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  To  de- 
vise the  ways  and  means  of  paying  this  debt  as  it  shall  fall  due. 
and  its  interest  as  it  accrues  annually,  presents  the  important 
problems  which  we  are  now  called  on  to  solve.  Of  this  in- 
debtedness, the  bonds  of  the  State,  to  the  amount  of  $500,000, 
issued  to  raise  the  means  of  paying  for  stock  to  that  amount 
in  the  Union  Bank,  constitutes  a  part.  As  the  State  still  owns 
this  stock,  considerably  increased  by  the  re-investment  of  our 
surplus  profits  therein,  and  as  the  Union  Bank  has  heretofore 
paid  punctually  the  interest  on  these  bonds,  I  shall  confine  my 
attention  to  the  remainder  of  the  debt,  which  is  made  up  as 
follows  : 

Bonds  issued  for  capital  of  Bank  of  Tennessee,    $1,000,000 
Internal  Improvement  Bonds  at  5J  per  cent.,  263,160 

Internal  Improvement  Bonds  at  5  per  cent.,  1,579,500 


Total  $2,842,666 

The  amount  of  indebtedness  for  which  it  is  incumbent  on 
the  Legislature  to  make  provision  is  $2,842,666,  bearing  an 
annual  interest  of  $152,790.  This  debt  will  become  due  at 
different  periods,  covering  a  space  of  thirty  years,  before  the 
whole  become  payable.  To  meet  these  liabilities  as  they  shall 
respectively  be  payable,  no  adequate  provision  has  yet  been 
made  by  law.  In  my  judgment,  a  proper  regard  for  the  credit 
of  the  State  requires  at  your  hands  Legislative  action  on  the 
subject.  It  is  ascertained  that  a  Sinking  Fund  of  $35,000 
annually  applied  can  be  so  managed  as  to  be  amply  sufficient 
to  meet  our  whole  indebtedness  as  it  becomes  due.  This  esti- 
mate, however,  is  made  upon  the  supposition  that  the   Bank 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  383 

of  Tennessee  will  continue  to  be  relied  on  as  the  means  of  pro- 
viding for  the  payment  of  the  accruing  interests  on  the  debt. 
It  becomes  necessary,  therefore,  that  I  should  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  present  condition  and  the  probable  future  opera- 
tions of  this  institution,  together  with  such  suggestions  in 
reference  to  its  re-organization  as  will  make  it  more  available. 
By  reference  to  the  late  Report  of  the  President  and  Directors 
of  the  Bank  of  Tennessee  the  capital  of  the  institution  is 
found  to  be  $3,200,598.     It  is  made  up  as  follows  : 

State  Bonds  for  Bank  Capital,  $  1,000,000 

School-Fund,  847,389 

Surplus  Revenue,  1,353,209 


Total  $3,200,598 

From  the  same  report  it  is  ascertained  that  during  the  last 
two  years  the  net  profits  of  the  Bank  have  been  annually 
$168,305.  By  the  laws  nowinforce,  the  Bank  is  required  to  dis- 
tribute annually  to  Common  Schools  and  Academies  $118,000 
this  amount  added  to  the  interest  on  the  Internal  Improve* 
ment  bonds  and  the  bonds  issued  to  raise  capital  foi  tsk 
Bank,  making,  as  before  stated,  $152,790,  constitutes  the  bur- 
dens imposed  on  the  institution.  By  the  existing  laws  the 
Bank  is  expected  and  required  to  pay  out  of  her  annual  profits 
the  sum  of  $270,709,  when  it  is  now  demonstrated  that  her 
annual  profits  amount  to  only  $168,305.  I  trust  that  this  im- 
portant fact  will  not  fail  to  impress  itself  forcibly  on  the  minds 
of  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly.  The  necessity  for 
prompt  and  efficient  action  to  avoid  the  consequences  threat- 
ened by  this  State  of  things  cannot  be  overlooked  or  disre- 
garded by  the  patriotic  representatives  of  the  people. 

In  looking  for  the  causes  which  have  lead  to  this  state  of 
things,  the  fact  cannot  escape  observation,  that  whilst  the 
Bank  has  made  within  the  last  two  years,  less  than  six  per 
cent,  nett  profits  on  its  capital,  the  amount  required  to  be  dis- 
tributed to  Common  Schools  and  Academies  is  about  fourteen 
per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  the  School  Fund  in  the  Bank. 
The  Bank  has  the  use  of  $847,389  belonging  to  the  School 
Fund,  and  by  its  use  makes  a  clear  profit  of  about  $50,000 — 

26 


384  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

yet  by  law  she  is  compelled  annually  to  distribute  for  purposes 
of  education  $118,000.  If  the  law  were  so  amended  as  to  re- 
quire the  institution  to  distribute  annually  the  amount  of  profits 
actually  made  by  the  use  of  the  School  Fund,  the  annual 
deficit  of  the  Bank  hereafter  would  be  about  $34,000  instead 
of  about  $100,000  under  existing  laws,  I 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  strong  aversion  in  the  minds  of 
some  to  any  interference  with  the  distribution  now  provided  fbr 
purposes  of  education.  This  aversion  is  felt  more  sensibly  by 
none  than  by  myself,  and  if  I  saw  any  possible  escape  from  it 
without  a  resort  to  a  heavy  increase  of  the  public  taxes,  I  should 
allow  my  feelings  to  control  and  dissuade  me  from  the  recom- 
mendation. But  it  has  become  a  question  no  longer  debatable 
that  we  cannot  continue  to  make  an  annual  distribution  of 
$118,000  to  schools  and  academies  upon  any  scheme  of  man- 
aging our  financial  affairs  which  has  yet  been  suggested.  If 
it  be  determined  that  the  bank  shall  be  put  into  liquidation  by 
vesting  the  school  fund  in  State  bonds,  the  amouut  for  annual 
distribution  cannot  then  exceed  $50,000.  The  question  resolves 
/f«elf  into  this :  if  the  distribution  to  schools  and  academies  is 
continued  at  the  present  sum  the  Bank  must  unavoidably  be- 
come crippled,  its  capital  consumed,  the  School  Fund  itself,  in 
all  probability,  be  greatly  diminished,  and  the  credit  of  the 
State  entirely  ruined.  If  the  bank  is  wound  up,  the  school 
fund  will  be  invested  in  State  bonds  bearing  five  per  cent, 
interest  and  will  therefore  only  yield  about  $50,000  annually. 
But  if  the  actual  profits  made  by  the  bank  on  the  school  fund 
are  distributed,  so  much  of  the  burden  will  be  lifted  from 
that  institution,  that  the  way  will  be  open  for  its  prosperous 
continuance.  As  reluctant  as  I  am  to  make  any  recom- 
mendation which  would  seem  to  conflict  with  the  prospect  of 
an  extension  of  our  common  school  system,  I  feel  coerced 
under  the  weight  of  the  consideration  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
to  invite  to  these  suggestions  your  careful  and  favorable  con- 
sideration. 

It  will  be  observed  that  if  the  suggestions  already  made 
should  meet  your  approbation,  the  profits  of  the  bank,  as  at 
present  organized,  will  fall  short  by  the  sum  of  $35,000  in  meet- 
ing the  liabilities  imposed  upon  it.  It  becomes  important,  then, 


* 


GOVERNOR'S   MESSAGE.  385 

to  inquire  whether  the  institution  can  be  so  re-organized  as  t<9 
increase  its  profits  to  an  extent  to  cover  this  deficiency.  After 
mature  reflection,  I  am  fully  satisfied  that  an  increase  of  profits 
amounting  to  $35,000  annully,  or  more,  can  be  secured  by  such 
alterations  in  the  number  and  locations  of  the  branches,  and 
such  a  change  in  its  system  of  doing  business  as  will  enable 
its  directors  to  conduct  it  upon  legitimate  banking  principles. 
When  the  bank  was  created,  our  leading  object  was  to  afford 
relief  to  an  embarrassed  people  by  furnishing  loans  on  accom- 
modation paper.  That  object  was  attained,  and  at  the  present 
the  great  purpose  in  continuing  the  bank  is  to  make  profits  to 
pay  the  interest  on  our  debt  and  avoid  a  resort  to  burdensome 
taxation.  Reason  and  experience  combined,  prove  that  the 
business  of  banking  cannot  be  conducted  safely  or  profitably 
upon  the  principle  of  dealing  mainly  in  accommodation  notes, 
renewable  upon  small  calls.  If  the  question  of  creating  the 
bank  were  now  to  be  settled,  the  popular  voice  would  at  once 
reject  the  proposition ;  but  in  the  present  attitude  of  the  ques- 
tion I  am  constrained  to  express  the  opinion  that  the  wisest 
course  that  can  be  devised  would  be  to  give  to  the  directory  of 
the  principal  bank  the  power  to  take  steps  for  the  gradual  dis- 
continuance of  all  such  branches  as  are  found  to  be  unprofita- 
ble, and  to  transfer  their  capital  to  some  three  or  four  points 
where  commercial  advantages  hold  out  certain  prospects  of 
affording  better  profits.  This  recommendation  I  am  aware, 
may  encounter  strenuous  opposition,  but  under  the  solemn 
obligations  imposed  upon  me,  and  under  the  most  thorough 
convictions  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  course  indicated,  I  can- 
not withhold  the  expression  of  a  strong  hope  that  I  shall  have 
your  final  co-operation  in  the  suggestions.  If  the  course  indi- 
cated shall  be  adopted  by  you,  I  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  increased  profits  of  the  bank  would  enable  it  in  a  very 
short  time  to  increase  the  annual  distribution  to  the  cause  of 
education,  and  give  assurance  that  the  common  school  system 
could  be  permanently  maintained. 

In  the  suggestions  which  I  have  already  made,  it  has  been 
my  object  to  devise  the  means  of  securing  the  payment  of  the 
interest  on  our  State  debt  without  any  resort  to  the  treasury, 
If  upon  investigation  of  the  operation  of  the  revenue  laws,  as^ 


386  '  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

they  now  stand,  it  shall  be  found  that  any  considerable  aid 
can  be  derived  from  that  source,  it  will  enable  you  to  increase 
by  so  much  the  annual  distribution  to  schools  beyond  the  actual 
profits  made  on  the  school  fund.  If  it  shall  be  fonnd  that  by 
a  system  of  rigid  but  just  economy  in  the  public  expenditures, 
and  by  the  use  of  any  surplus  in  the  treasury  derivable 
from  taxes,  you  can  not  only  distribute  to  the  school  the 
profits  on  the  school  fund,  but  also  the  profits  on  one 
half  of  the  surplus  revenue  on  deposit  with  the  State, 
every  thing  demanded  at  your  hands  by  the  strictest  prin- 
ciples of  justice  and  equity  in  behalf  of  education  will  have 
been  achieved.  But  my  convictions  are  so  strong  that  I 
cannot  refrain  from  again  remarking  that  no  resort  to  the 
treasury  for  aid  can  weaken  the  force  of  the  high  considera- 
tions which  demand  a  re-organization  of  the  Bank  according 
to  the  principles  I  have  suggested. 

When  you  shall  have  made  ample  provision  for  the  payment 
of  the  interest  on  the  State  debt,  your  duties  will  be  but  im- 
perfectly discharged  until  you  also  provide  a  sinking  fund  for 
the  liquidation  of  the  debt  itself.  I  have  already  remarked 
that  a  sinking  fund  of  $35,000  can  be  so  managed  as  to  pay 
off  our  entire  debt  by  the  time  it  becomes  due.  I  am  gratified 
to  learn  that  through  the  valuable  and  efficient  labors  of  the 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  last  legislature  to  settle  with 
the  Internal  Improvement  Companies,  the  means  have  been 
made  available,  with  a  small  annual  appropriation  from  the 
Treasury,  to  effect  this  most  desirable  object.  If  provision 
shall  be  made  setting  apart  the  dividends  derivable  from  our 
road  stocks,  together  with  an  amount  from  the  treasury,  mak- 
ing a  permanent  annual  fund  of  $35,000,  and  it  be  made  the 
duty  of  the  President  of  the  Bank  or  some  other  officer  to  vest 
the  same  annually  in  State  Bonds,  and  if  to  this  sum  be  added 
each  year  any  surplus  profits  of  the  bank,  after  paying  its  lia- 
bilities, it  will  be  found  that  when  our  State  debt  falls  due,  it 
would  have  been  liquidated  and  our  bonds  cancelled  with- 
out any  further  resort  to  taxation.  Our  whole  interest  in 
internal  improvement  companies,  amounting  to  over  one  mil- 
lion seven  hundred  thousand  dollars,  together  with  the  surplus 
revenue  on   deposit,  amounting  to    over  $1,353,000,  can  be 


/ 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE,  387 

added  to  the  school  fund,  making  in  all  a  school  fund  nearly 
four  millions  of  dollars.  In  view  of  a  result  so  ardently  desired 
by  every  patriotic  citizen,  I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  upon 
your  consideration  the  adoption  of  all  necessary  means  for  its 
effectuation.  AARON  V.   BROWN. 

Executive  Office,  Nov.  7,  1845. 


PROCLAMATION 


Of  Gov.  Brown,  raising  the  three  first  Regiments  of  Tennessee 
Volunteers  for  the  Mexican  War,  May,  1846. 


Whereas,  I  have  received  the  following  communication  from 
the  Department  of  Wa&at  Washington : 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,        \ 

Washington,  May  16,  1846.     \ 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  a  copy  of  an  act  of  Congress,  entitled 
"  An  act  providing  for  the  prosecution  of  the  existing  war  between  the  Uni- 
ted States  and  the  republic  of  Mexico,"  which  authorizes  the  President  to 
accept  the  services  of  volunteers. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  all  the  officers,  with  volunteers,  taken  into  the 
service  of  the  United  States  under  this  act,  are  to  be  appointed  and  com- 
missioned, or  such  as  have  been  appointed  and  commissioned  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  the  State  from  whence  they  are  taken,  and  that  the  vol- 
unteers received  into  the  service  of  the  United  States,  are  to  have  the  or- 
ganization of  the  army  of  the  United  States.  For  this  exact  organization, 
so  far  as  relates  to  companies  and  regiments,  please  see  the  memorandum 
appended  to  the  law  herewith,  to  both  of  which  particular  attention  is  re- 
quested ;  but,  under  the  discretion  allowed  him,  the  President  has  decided 
that  the  number  of  privates  in  all  volunteer  companies  shall  be  limited  to 
eighty. 

On  the  part  of  the  President,  I  have  to  request  your  Excellency  to  cause 
to  be  organized,  at  the  earliest  practicable  period,  the  following  corps  of 
volunteers  : 

One  regiment  of  cavalry,  or  mounted  men,  and  two  regiments  of  infan- 
try, or  riflemen. 

Your  Excellency  is  requested  to  designate,  and  to  communicate  promptly 
to  this  Department,  some  convenient  place  of  rendezvous  for  moving  to- 
wards Mexico,  for  the  several  companies,  as  fast  as  they  shall  be  organized, 
where  they  will  be  further  organized  into  regiments. 


PROCLAMATION  FOR  VOLUNTEERS.  389 

The  several  corps  will  be  inspected  and  mustered  into  the  service  of  the 
United  States,  as  far  as  practicable,  by  an  officer  or  officers  of  the  United 
States  Army.  When  this  cannot  be  done,  you  are  requested  to  designate 
the  inspecting  and  mustering  officer,  who  will  in  every  case  be  instructed 
to  receive  no  man  under  the  rank  of  commissioned  officers,  who  is  in  years 
apparently  over  forty-five  or  under  eighteen,  or  who  is  not  in  physical 
strength  and  vigor;  nor  the  horse  of  any  volunteer  not  apparently  sound  and 
effective,  with  the  necessary  horse  equipments  or  furniture. 

It  is  respectfully  suggested  that  public  'notice  of  these  requirements  of 
law,  may  prevent  much  disappointment  to  the  zealous  and  patriotic  citizens 
of  your  State,  multitudes  of  whom  the  President  cannot  doubt  will  be  eager 
to  volunteer. 

Should  there  be  any  difficulty  or  considerable  delay  in  obtaining  the 
amount  and  description  of  the  force  proposed  to  be  received  from  your 
State,  you  will  give  the  earliest  notice  of  these  to  this  Department,  that 
proper  steps  may  be  taken  to  receive  them  from  other  sections  of  the  coun- 
try. Memphis  is  suggested  as  the  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  mounted  regi- 
ment, and  Nashville  for  the  regiments  of  infantry  or  rifle. 
Very  respectfully,  your  ob't  serv't, 

W.  L.  MARGY,  Sec'y  of  War. 

His  Ex'cy  A.  V.  Bkown,  Gov.  of  Tenn. 

In  compliance  with  the  communication  aforesaid,  I  have 
caused  the  requisition  therein  made  to  be  apportioned  amongst 
the  military  divisions  of  this  State  in  the  following  manner : 

To  the  first  division,  (East  Tennessee,)  seven  companies,  four 
of  which  to  be  infantry  or  riflemen,  and  three  to  be  cavalry  or 
mounted  men. 

To  the  second  division,  eight  companies,  six  of  infantry  or 
riflemen,  and  two  of  cavalry  or  mounted  men. 

To  the  third  division,  nine  companies,  six  of  infantry  or  rifle- 
men, and  three  of  cavalry  or  mounted  men. 

To  the  fourth  division,  (Western  District,)  six  companies, 
four  of  infantry  or  riflemen,  and  two  of  cavalry  or  mounted 
men. 

An  infantry  company,  according  to  the  directions  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  accompanying  said  requisition,  will  consist  of 
one  captain,  one  first  lieutenant,  one  second  lieutenant,  four 
sergeants,  four  corporals,  two  musicians,  and  not  more  than 
eighty  privates — the  minimum  is  not  mentioned  by  him,  but 
I  will  add,  not  less  than  sixty-four  rank  and  file.  A  company 
of  cavalry  or  mounted  men  will  consist  of  one  captain,  one  first 
lieutenant,  one  second  lieutenant,  four  sergeants,  four  corpo- 


390  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

rals,  two  buglers,  one  farrier  and  blacksmith,  and  not  more 
than  eighty  privates,  and  not  less  than  sixty-four  rank  and 
file. 

The  Major  Generals  commanding  said  Divisions  are  hereby 
required  to  furnish  the  quota  of  volunteer  companies  above 
specified,  and  according  to  the  organization  aforesaid. 

In  raising  said  volunteer  companies,  the  Major  Generals  will 
duly  observe  the  44th  section  of  the  militia  laws  of  this  State, 
passed  in  the  year  1840,  which  is  in  the  following  words,  viz : 
"  Be  it  enacted,  that  each  volunteer  company  which  shall  re- 
ceive the  arms  of  the  State,  shall  be  held  in  readiness  and  sub- 
ject to  the  first  call  for  service  of  the  State  or  of  the  United 
States." 

Under  this  act  all  volunteer  companies  which  have  received 
the  arms  of  the  State  since  the  passage  of' said  act,  and  which 
have  not  returned  the  same  to  the  State,  and  continued  their 
existence  until  the  receipt  of  the  requisition  aforesaid,  viz : 
the  22d  day  of  May,  1846,  will,  on  application,  be  entitled  to 
priority.  Next  to  these,  all  old  companies  which  have  been  re- 
vived, and  new  ones  which  have  been  formed  since  the  date  of 
order  No.  1,  issued  by  R.  B.  Turner,  Adjutant  General  of  the 
State,  viz  :  since  the  13th  instant,  and  up  to  the  date  of  this 
proclamation,  and  which  have  been  reported  to  me  or  to  the 
Adjutant  General,  (including  alj  cases  in  which  reports  may 
have  been  started  by  mail  or  private  conveyance,  whether  the 
same  have  yet  come  to  hand  or  not,)  shall  be  entitled  to  pri- 
ority over  companies  formed  since  the  date  of  this  proclama- 
tion. 

If  a  greater  number  of  companies  formed  between  the  peri- 
ods aforesaid  shall  tender  themselves  to  any  of  the  Major  Gen- 
erals, than  will  fill  up  the  requisition  on  their  divisions,  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  such  Major  General  forthwith  to  determine 
fairly  by  ballot,  which  shall  be  received,  (holding  separate  bal- 
lotings  for  infantry  and  cavalry,)  and  notify  such  companies, 
as  soon  as  possible,  in  their  respective  neighborhoods ;  and 
said  companies,  on  learning  such  acceptance,  shall  take  up 
their  march  in  time  to  reach  the  place  of  rendezvous  as  here- 
inafter stated.  And  where  a  sufficient  number  of  the  two  last 
described  class  of  companies  shall  not  be  presented,  any  vol- 


PROCLAMATION  FOR  VOLUNTEERS, 


391 


unteer  company,  formed  since  the  date  of  this  proclamation 
aforesaid,  viz :  the  24th  instant,  may  be  received,  unless  so 
many  of  such  companies  shall  apply  as  shall  make  it  neces- 
sary to  resort  to  a  ballot,  in  order  to  determine  between  them. 

In  no  case  is  it  expected  that  any  volunteer  company  shall 
leave  its  neighborhood  until  it  shall  have  received  notice  of  its 
acceptance  or  successful  ballot,  and  thereupon  it  will  be  ex- 
pected to  repair  to  the  place  of  rendezvous  hereafter  men- 
tioned. 

All  volunteer  companies  in  the  first  division,  (East  Tennes- 
see,) will  report  themselves  as  soon  as  possible  after  seeing  this 
proclamation,  to  Major  General  Brazelton,  at  Knoxville,  who 
is  hereby  requested  to  make  that  place  his  head  quarters,  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  greater  dispatch  to  the  service.  When 
he  shall  have  waited  ten  days  from  the  receipt  of  this  procla- 
mation for  volunteer  companies  to  tender  their  services,  he 
shall  make  his  acceptance,  or  determine  by  ballot,  (when  too 
many  companies  are  presented,)  and  notify  by  express,  when 
necessary,  the  companies  accepted,  and  order  the  cavalry  com- 
panies to  repair  forthwith  to  the  general  rendezvous  at  Mem- 
phis. All  infantry  companies  to  be  ordered  by  the  most  ap- 
proved route  to  the  same  place,  unless  he  shall  find  it  practica- 
ble and  expedient  to  cause  them  to  be  transported  on  the  Ten-  .  • 
nessee  river  from  any  point  thereof  to  Memphis  as  aforesaid ; 
and  he  is  hereby  directed  and  authorized  to  make  all  suitable 
and  reasonable  contracts  for  such  mode  of  transportation,  and 
to  appoint  an  agent  to  act  as  Quarter  Master  and  Commissary 
for  the  purchase  of  supplies,  and  to  draw  on  any  disbursing 
officer  of  the  United  States  sent  to  this  State,  or  on  the  Exec-  .. 
utive  Department  of  this  State.  If,  after  the  expiration  of 
fifteen  days  from  the  receipt  of  this  proclamation,  he  shall  not 
be  able  to  furnish  the  number  of  companies  required  from  his 
division,  he  will  report  the  deficiency  to  the  Executive,  that  the 
same  may  be  received  from  some  other  division  of  the  State. 

Volunteer  companies  from  the  second  division,  will  make 
return  and  report  forthwith  after  this  date  to  Major  General 
Campbell,  who  is  requested  to  make  his  head  quarters  at  Nash- 
ville, for  the  greater   convenience  of  the  companies  of  his  di- 


392  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

vision,  who  will  accept  their  services  in  the  manner  and  on  the 
principles  specified  in  a  former  part  of  this  proclamation. 

Those  of  the  third  division,  will  report  to  Major  General 
Bradley,  at  Franklin,  who  will  liKewise  give  due  attention  to 
this  order  in  the  manner  pointed  out.  All  letters  announcing 
the  existence  and  formation  of  companies  tendering  their  ser- 
vices, in  the  event  of  a  requisition,  which  have  been  received 
by  me,  or  the  Adjutant  General  of  the  State,  will  be  handed 
over  to  the  Major  General  of  the  proper  division,  in  order  to 
enable  him  to  give  to  the  companies,  in  whose  behalf  they 
were  written,  the  full  benefit  of  their  patriotism  and  zeal. 

Volunteer  companies  from  the  fourth  division,  (Western  Dis- 
trict,) will  report  themselves  to  Major  General  Hays,  at  Jack- 
son, who  will  accept  of  their  services  by  the  rules  and  on  the 
principles  herein  stated,  and  notify  by  express,  when  neces- 
sary, such  companies ;  and  on  receiving  such  notice,  all  the 
companies  (infantry  and  cavalry)  will  march  to  Memphis,  the 
place  of  their  rendezvous  and  further  organization,  on  the  15th 
June.  Any  deficiency  which  may  occur  in  raising  the  required 
number  of  companies  from  his  division,  the  Major  General 
will  report  to  the  Executive,  that  the  same  may  be  received 
from  some  other  portion  of  the  State. 

The  seven  infantry  companies  from  the  second  and  third 
divisions,  (Middle  Tennessee,)  will  be  expected  to  be  at  Nash- 
ville by  the  8th  of  June,  where  suitable  and  proper  arrange- 
ments will  be  made  for  their  transportation  to  Memphis,  the 
place  of  general  rendezvous,  on  the  15th  of  June,  where  the 
whole  force  will  be  further  organized  into  regiments  as  pre- 
scribed by  the  laws  of  the  State.  The  cavalry  companies,  from 
every  part  of  the  State,  will  proceed  by  land  to  Memphis. 

Gen.  Levin  H.  Coe,  Inspector  General  of  the  State,  is  hereby 
instructed,  unless  superseded  in  that  duty  by  some  officer 
charged  with  the  same  by  the  United  States,  to  select  a  suita- 
ble encampment  in  or  near  Memphis,  and  cause  an  adequate 
supply  of  rations  and  supplies  to  be  engaged  for  the  subsist- 
ence of  said  troops  whilst  at  that  place,  and  employ  suitable 
assistants  for  that  purpose. 

Volunteer  companies,  after  they  have  been  accepted  by  the 
Major  Generals,   will  be   at  liberty  to   arm  themselves   with 


PROCLAMATION  FOR  VOLUNTEERS.  393 

"Hall's  rifles,"  or  muskets,  or  other  arms,  at  the  depots  in  the 
several  divisions  of  the  State,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  so  as 
to  go  to  the  field  with  arms  in  as  good  condition  as  possible, 
and  the  keepers  of  the  public  arms  are  hereby  directed  to  de- 
liver such  arms  to  the  Captain  of  any  accepted  company,  taking 
his  receipt  for  the  same. 

All  companies  from  the  second  and  third  divisions  will  be 
mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  at  Nashville, 
and  all  others  at  Memphis. 

The  East  Tennessee  troops  will  arrive  at  Memphis  as  soon 
after  the  said  15th  of  June  as  practicable. 

The  Executive  has  witnessed,  with  the  proudest  satisfaction, 
the  zeal  and  alacrity  with  which  the  citizens  of  Tennessee  have 
rallied  to  the  standard  of  the  country.  He  has  endeavored  to 
give  all  parts  of  the  State  an  equal  chance  to  engage  in  the 
service,  and  has  gone  into  all  the  above  details,  in  order  to  save 
time  and  to  give  the  utmost  possible  expedition  to  the  depar- 
ture of  the  troops. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 
land  caused  the  great  seal  of  the  State  to  be  affixed, 
'on  this  the  24th  day  of  May,  1846. 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 


By  the  Governor, 

Jno.  S.  Young,  Sec'y  of  State. 


ADDRESS 


Of  Gov.  Brown,  transferring  the  third  Regiment  of  Volunteers 
to  the  United  States. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  ) 
Nashville,  June  3,  1846.         ) 

To  Col.  Wm.  B.  Campbell  : 

Sir  :  The  first  regiment  of  the  Tennessee  Infantry  Volun- 
teers, which  you  have  the  honor  to  command,  being  now  fully 
organized  and  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
in  pursuance  of  a  requisition  made  on  me  by  the  Secretary  of 
War,  dated  16th  May,  1846,  you  will  proceed  with  it,  by  means 
of  the  steamboats  chartered  for  that  purpose,  to  the  city  of 
New  Orleans  as  speedily  as  practicable,  and  report  yourself  to 
Major  General  Edmund  Pendleton  Gaines,  for  further  orders. 

In  surrendering  the  State  authority,  and  passing  you  over, 
during  the  term  of  your  service,  to  that  of  the  United  States, 
I  cannot  permit  the  opportunity  thereby  afforded  to  pass  by, 
without  submitting  a  few  observations  to  you  and  the  brave  and 
gallant  men  under  your  command.  You  have  been  called  on 
at  a  moment  of  great  emergency  to  engage  in  the  service  of 
the  country.  The  requisition  on  me  arrived  by  one  mail ;  mine 
on  you  was  sent  forth  by  the  next.  In  the  short  space  of  one 
week  you  nobly  responded  to  my  call,  and  are  now  here  from 
the  different  portions  of  a  widely  extended  country  with  a 
promptitude  and  alacrity  which  has  never  been  surpassed  in 
the  volunteer  service  of  the  country.  It  would  have  been  im- 
possible to  have  given  greater  celerity  to  the  movement,  with 


ADDRESS  TO  VOLUNTEERS.  395 

out  having  taken  the  requisition  from  a  few  of  our  principal 
towns  and  nearest  counties  of  the  State,  without  giving  the 
balance  of  it  any  opportunity  to  participate  in  the  glorious 
privilege  of  defending  the  country.  This  I  could  not  consent 
to  do  ;  and  in  order  to  give  all  parts  of  the  State  over  which  I 
preside  an  equal  opportunity,  I  caused  the  requisition  to  be  ap- 
portioned among  the  different  military  divisions  established  by 
law.  But  such  has  been  the  patriotic  ardor  of  my  countrymen, 
that  at  least  five  times  as  many  companies  offered  themselves 
as  it  would  take  to  fill  up  the  requisition.  I  could  not  take  all, 
for  reasons  hereafter  mentioned,  and  I  therefore  directed  the 
four  Major  Generals  of  the  State  to  select,  according  to  the 
rules  laid  down,  the  companies  to  be  received  from  their  res- 
pective divisions.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to 
have  made  the  selection  with  propriety  amongst  companies 
formed  all  over  the  State,  with  which  the  Major  Generals  may 
well  be  presumed  to  have  much  better  acquaintance  than  any 
body  else.  I  directed  them  to  receive  the  old  armed  compa- 
nies under  the  fortieth  section  of  the  militia  laws  of  the  State, 
and  wherever  there  was  a  conflict  between  other  companies 
described,  to  decide  the  same  fairly  by  ballot.  I  know  of  no 
mode  more  equitable  than  that.  The  Major  Generals  of  the 
second  and  third  divisions  have  reported  to  me  that  they  have 
selected  you  (the  twelve  companies  now  present)  as  the  fortu- 
nate ones  on  whom  the  glorious  privilege  of  defending  the 
rights  and  honor  of  the  country  has  finally  devolved. 

Others,  no  doubt,  may  feel  some  disappointment  and  morti- 
fication, that  they,  too,  cannot  share  with  you  at  this  time  in 
the  toils,  and  dangers,  and  honors  of  the  present  campaign. — 
Many  have  petitioned  and  entreated  me  to  take  them  also  into 
the  public  service.  Most  heartily  would  I  have  consented  to 
do  so,  if  it  had  been  in  my  power.  But  the  requisition  was  ex- 
pressly limited  to  three  regiments,  and  no  more.  Besides  this, 
the  Secretary  of  War,  after  learning  that  Gen.  Gaines  had 
called  for  a  much  larger  requisition,  and  when  he  knew  every 
thing  known  to  us,  as  to  Gen.  Taylor's  condition,  expressly  and 
promptly  required  me  not  to  comply  with  it.  Moreover,  after 
the  requisition  was  made,  authorizing  companies  to  contain  as 
many  as  eighty  privates,  the  Secretary  of  War  desired  that 


Mr 


396  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

they  should  be  reduced  so  as  not  to  exceed  sixty -four  privates, 
thereby  considerably  diminishing  the  number  of  the  first  call. 
Under  these  circumstances,  I  felt  constrained  to  decline  ac- 
cepting more  than  would  fill  the  requisition.  The  requisition 
from  which  all  my  authority  is  derived,  was  against  it.  The 
letter  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  commanding  me  not  to  comply 
with  the  larger  requisition  of  Gen.  Gaines,  was  against  it. — 
His  letter  to  reduce  the  size  of  the  companies,  if  not  too  far 
advanced  in  organization,  was  against  it, — and  nothing  in  fa- 
vor of  it,  but  the  patriotic  eagerness  of  my  countrymen  to  re- 
pel the  insolent  invader  of  our  soil. 

The  letter  of  Gen.  Gaines  was  one  of  advice,  in  anticipation 
of  a  call,  and  not  a  requisition  at  all.  If  considered  as  man- 
datory, it  was  void  for  want  of  authority.  If  (as  it  declares  in 
express  terms)  it  is  regarded  as  advisory  only,  it  turns  out  that 
I  acted  precisely  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  general 
government,  in  not  complying  with  it.  And  more  than  all, 
suppose  I  had  yielded  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment,  and 
instead  of  two  thousand  or  three  thousand  men,  I  had  sent  five 
thousand  or  six  thousand,  what  assurance  have  we  that  any 
more  than  the  requisition  would  have  been  received?  None, 
whatsoever;  and  we  might  have  been  doomed  to  see  or  hear  of 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  our  fellow-citizens  rejected  in  New 
Orleans,  without  provisions,  and  many  without  money,  to  grope 
their  way  back  to  Tennessee,  cursing  the  folly  of  her  Gov- 
ernor, in  having  disobeyed  all  the  orders  and  admonitions  of 
the  constituted  authorities  of  the  general  government. 

And  now,  Sir,  having  explained  to  you  and  the  regiment  un- 
der your  command,  and  to  our  fellow-citizens  at  large,  the 
principles  on  which  you  have  been  selected  rather  than  others, 
to  bear  the  time-honored  standard  of  Tennessee  to  the  field  of 
battle  and  of  glory,  I  have  only  to  say,  Go,  gallant  sons  of 
gallant  fathers,  go  and  join  with  others  of  your  countrymen,  in 
driving  back,  if  not  already  done,  the  insolent  invader  of  our 
country,  and  if  need  be,  to  carry  home  the  war  into  the  very 
heart  of  his  territory.  Go,  under  that  beautiful  banner,  which 
innocence,  virtue,  and  beauty  have  presented  to  you.  Never 
permit  it — and  I  know  you  will  not — never  permit  it  to  be  low- 
ered in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  whilst  your  regiment  has  one 


ADDRESS  TO  VOLUNTEERS.  397 

soldier  left  to  hold  it  proudly  floating  to  the  breeze.  Go,  and 
may  a  kind  Providence  attend  you,  and  bring  you  back  in 
health  and  safety,  the  pride  of  an  admiring  and  grateful 
country.  AARON  V.  BROWN, 

Governor  and  Commander  in  Chief. 


0$ 


MESSAGE 

■  -   ■ 

H 

Of  Gov.  A.    V.  Brown ,  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee,  October  6th,  1847. 


i 


Gentlemen  of  the  Senate 

and  of  the  House  of  Representatives : 

Assembled  as  you  now  are,  as  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  you  cannot  fail  to  observe  in  the  circumstances  which 
surround  you,  increased  cause  of  gratitude  and  reverence  to 
that  Supreme  Being  who  presides  over  the  destinies  of  nations. 

The  two  past  years  have  been  signalized  by  unnumbered 
blessings  and  benefits.  The  labor  of  the  husbandman  has 
been  crowned  with  abundance,  whilst  fair  and  remunerating 
prices  have  been  received  for  the  rich  productions  of  his  fields  . 
Our  commerce  has  been  greatly  increased,  and  our  domestic 
industry,  of  every  variety,  has  flourished  in  the  most  remarka- 
ble degree.  Tranquility  and  good  order  have  been  main- 
tained, and  the  supremacy  of  our  laws  acknowledged  through- 
out all  our  borders. 

In  the  full  enjoyment  of  these  blessings,  to  which  may  be 
added  that  of  almost  uninterrupted  good  health,  the  people  of 
Tennessee  have  been  steadily  advancing  in  knowledge,  in  vir- 
tue, and  indeed  in  all  the  elements  of  national  greatness.  It 
must  be  a  pleasing  duty  to  serve  such  a  people,  and  a  delight- 
ful task  to  add  any  thing  valuable  to  the  legislation  of  such  a 
noble  State. 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  399 

When  the  reports  of  the  various  branches  or  departments  of 
the  State  government  shall  have  been  made  to  you,  I  doubt  not 
that  you  will  find  that  all  the  duties  of  them  have  been  per- 
formed with  a  promptitude  and  fidelity  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  other  pleasing  circumstances  under  which  you  have  as- 
sembled. 

The  benevolent  institutions  of  the  State,  (the  Lunatic  Asy- 
lum, and  those  for  the  education  of  the  Blind  and  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb,)  will  be  found  to  have  realized,  in  a  good  degree, 
the  expectations  of  the  public.  They  will,  however,  continue 
to  appeal  to  the  noblest  sympathies  of  our  nature  for  still  fur- 
ther advancement  and  promotion. 

The  sale  of  the  Lunatic  Asylum  and  its  location  in  the  coun- 
try, for  reasons  which  will  be  communicated  in  another  form, 
has  not  been  effected;  and  I  recommend  a  reconsideration  and 
amendment  of  the  law  directing  its  sale.  During  the  past  two 
years,  I  have  many  reasons  to  believe,  that  the  institution  has 
been  well  and  faithfully  managed,  especially  the  female  de- 
partment of  it,  which  has  been  superintended  by  a  lady  of 
singular  energy,  skill  and  ability  for  such  a  station. 

From  the  Penitentiary,  I  anticipate  a  very  satisfactory  report 
to  you.  The  convicts  generally  have  been  in  the  enjoyment  of 
good  health,  and  have  manifested  no  spirit  of  rebellion  or  dis- 
obedience. The  keeper,  his  deputy,  and  the  other  officers, 
having  great  skill  and  experience  in  such  matters,  seem  to  have 
blended  the  stern  rigor  of  discipline  with  all  the  kindness  and 
humanity  which  such  a  situation  will  admit  of.  The  greater 
portion  of  the  efficient  labor  of  the  convicts  has  been  directed 
to  the  building  of  the  State  Capitol,  under  the  law  directing  it 
so  to  be  done.  A  most  beautiful  edifice  is  slowly  rising  up, 
likely  to  attract  the  admiration  of  the  country,  and  to  outstrip 
in  magnitude,  convenience,  durability  and  elegance,  the  capi- 
tol  of  any  other  State  in  the  Union. 

I  have  no  reason  to  recommend  any  change  in  this  policy, 
nor  any  material  ones  in  the  details  of  the  law  on  this  subject. 

There  is  no  subject  upon  which  I  desire  to  hold  communion 
with  you  more  freely  than  on  that  of  Education. 

Our  Universities  and  Colleges  are,  in  the  general,  meeting 
the  just  expectations  of  their  friends.     Some  new  ones  have 

27 


400  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

been  recently  established  in  the  State,  founded  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  on  the  enlightened  liberality  of  individuals,  which 
promise  soon  to  rival  their  older  predecessors  in  the  diffusion 
of  a  sound  and  wholesome  intelligence  among  the  people. — 
Among  these,  it  may  not  be  considered  invidious  to  mention 
the  one  at  Lebanon,  whose  rising  reputation  gives  fine  prom- 
ise of  its  future  usefulness  to  the  State. 

Our  county  academies  may  also  be  said,  in  the  general,  to 
be  doing  well.  But  besides  all  these,  we  must  have  a  full  and 
complete  system  of  common  or  primary  schools,  dispensing 
their  benefits  to  all  those  whose  means  do  not  enable  them  to 
send  off  their  children  to  distant  seminaries  of  learning. 

No  system  can  be  compared  to  this  latter  description  of 
schools.  They  secure  to  the  great  mass  of  society  an  educa- 
tion, if  not  highly  finished  and  polished,  yet  commensurate  with 
the  everyday  wants  and  necessities  of  the  people.  We  should 
never  relax  our  exertions  on  this  subject  until  we  could  send 
the  gratifying  intelligence  abroad,  that  not  one  native  born  son 
or  daughter  of  Tennessee  could  be  found  who  could  not  read 
the  Scripture  of  Divine  Revelation,  and  likewise  the  laws  and 
Constitution  of  the  country.  How  such  a  blessed  and  happy 
result  is  to  be  attained,  is  a  question  constantly  addressing  it- 
self to  the  friends  of  education  throughout  the  land.  That 
legislature  which  shall  be  able  to  answer  it  in  the  establish- 
ment of  such  a  system,  with  adequate  funds  to  support  it,  will 
have  well  entitled  themselves  to  the  gratitude  of  the  present, 
and  the  blessings  of  future  generations. 

For  the  reasons  formerly  given  by  me  to  your  immediate 
predecessors,  I  cannot  recommend  a  present  resort  to  taxation, 
until  by  some  unequivocal  expression  of  public  sentiment,  it 
is  made  manifest  that  such  a  measure  would  be  cheerfully  ac- 
quiesced in.  How  far  it  might  answer  a  valuable  purpose,  to 
authorize  such  counties,  whose  population  might  be  willing  to 
do  so,  to  levy  and  collect  a  school  fund,  for  their  own  county 
purposes,  to  be  applied  in  the  same  manner  as  the  other  school 
funds  furnished  by  the  State,  and  the  propriety  of  such  a  law 
is  respectfully  submitted,  both  as  to  its  constitutionality  and 
expediency,  to  your  consideration.  Such  legislation  should  be 
carefully  guarded,  both  as  to  its  amount  and  application. 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  401 

If  but  a  few  counties  should  set  the  example  of  self-taxa- 
tion for  so  noble  an  object,  the  beneficial  effects  resulting  from 
it  might  open  the  way  to  its  imitation  by  other  counties,  until 
public  sentiment,  although  slowly  and  cautiously  developed, 
might  demand  the  measure  as  one  of  great  policy,  eminently 
calculated  to  improve  the  minds  and  elevate  the  morals  of  the 
whole  community. 

If,  however,  the  wisdom  of  your  honorable  bodies  should  find 
insurmountable  objections  to  this  limited  and  experimental 
mode  of  eliciting  an  expression  of  public  opinion,  I  know  of 
no  better  plan  than  to  husband  the  resources  of  the  State  Bank ; 
and  by  establishing  a  sinking  fund  of  adequate  amount,  finally 
absorb  our  outstanding  liabilities  and  leave  the  whole  capital 
and  funds  of  that  institution,  amounting  to  several  millions  of 
dollars,  as  a  permanent  endowment  of  common  schools.  Tax- 
ation is  therefore  the  immediate  and  direct  mode  of  establish- 
ing the  system.  Through  the  agency  of  the  bank  is  the  more 
remote  and  contingent  one;  and  the  wisdom  of  the  legislature 
must  decide  between  them,  or  devise  abetter  one  than  either. 

With  a  mind  fondly  lingering  over  this  subject,  and  unwil- 
ling to  leave  it,  I  beg  permission  to  trouble  you  with  another 
suggestion  in  aid  of  those  already  made. 

We  have  no  "  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction."  The 
examples  of  other  States,  and  the  very  nature  and  importance 
of  the  subject,  would  seem  to  rebuke  the  omission.  Even  if 
such  an  officer  were  of  temporary  appointment,  with  no  power 
over  the  funds,  he  might  be  of  great  advantage  in  rousing  up 
and  directing  the  sleeping  energies  of  the  people.  He  should 
be  a  man  eminent  for  his  attainments  in  science,  and  for  his  de- 
votion to  the  moral  and  intellectual  welfare  of  the  rising  gen- 
eration. He  should  commune  freely  with  the  learned  and  the 
pious  of  the  land.  He  should  visit  every  county  in  the  State. 
He  should  organize  county  committees  of  such  zealous  and  pa- 
triotic citizens,  as  might  agree  to  visit  the  school  districts  of 
their  respective  counties,  and  by  suitable  appeals  and  lectures, 
impart  new  vigor  and  energy  to  the  present  system.  He  should 
excite  the  acting  school  commissioners  of  each  county  to  re- 
newed exertions  in  raising  and  increasing  the  present  school 
fund  by  voluntary  individual  subscription.     In  short,  such  a 


402  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

man,  by  traversing  the  State,  addressing  his  fellow-citizens  at 
suitable  times  and  places,  and  finally  reporting  to  the  legisla- 
ture a  full  account  of  his  labors,  and  the  result  of  his  best  opin- 
ions, might  well  render  a  service  to  the  cause  of  education, 
which  would  outweigh  a  thousand-fold  the  $1500  or  $2000 
which  might  be  paid  him.  It  cannot  be  necessary  in  this  com- 
munication to  elaborate  the  duties  and  advantages  of  such  an 
officer,  and  I  suggest  his  creation,  because  I  earnestly  desire 
you  to  do  everything — I  had  almost  said  anything — for  the  ad- 
vancement of  so  great  and  so  good  a  cause. 

The  laudable  anxiety  exhibited  by  your  predecessors  to  fos- 
ter and  encourage  internal  improvements  in  the  State,  gives 
assurance  that  that  subject  will  engage  much  of  your  attention. 
Through  the  agency  of  the  committee  (members  of  the  legis- 
lature) appointed  by  the  legislature  in  1843,  and  that  of  the 
commissioners  appointed  at  the  last  session,  settlements  have 
been  made  with  the  several  internal  improvement  companies, 
by  which  all  the  difficulties  in  the  intercourse  between  the 
State  and  the  companies  have  been  obviated.  The  solvent 
and  insolvent  companies  have  been  ascertained.  With  the 
former,  nothing  remains  to  be  done,  but  to  receive  the  divi- 
dends due  the  State,  semi-annually,  on  the  first  of  January  and 
July ;  whilst  from  the  latter,  nothing  is  to  be  expected.  I  there- 
fore regard  the  continuance  of  a  special  agent,  as  a  mere  col- 
lector of  the  State's  dividends,  as  an  unnecessary  expense,  as 
the  duty  could  be  performed  by  the  cashier  of  the  Bank  of 
Tennessee,  or  by  the  Treasurer  of  the  State.  The  officers 
from  all  the  companies  from  which  the  State  will  receive  divi- 
dends, reside  in,  or  so  near  Nashville,  that  the  payments  could 
be  so  made  without  trouble  or  difficulty.  The  cashier  or  trea- 
surer, however,  should  be  required  to  file  statements  with  the 
comptroller,  exhibiting  the  receipts  or  disbursements  of  the 
roads,  together  with  the  duplicate  receipts  of  the  cashier  or 
treasurer  for  the  inspection  and  approval  of  the  internal  im- 
provement board.  The  duty  of  collecting  dividends  during  the 
last  year  has  been  performed  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  together 
with  the  other  duties  pertaining  to  his  appointment  as  commis- 
sioner, which  have  now  ceased,  for  which  he  was  allowed  five 
hundred  dollars  as  an  addition  to  his  salary,  the  continuance 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  403 

of  which  I  look  upon  as  an  unnecessary  expense,  as  the  mere 
collection  of  dividends  can  be  performed  by  the  treasurer  or 
cashier  of  the  bank  without  additional  compensation. 

The  completion  of  the  Georgia  railroad  to  Chattanooga,  an 
event  now  soon  to  be  expected,  will  constitute  a  new  and  im- 
portant era  in  the  commercial  and  agricultural  history  in  the 
eastern  portion  of  our  State.  It  unlocKs  the  door,  which  for 
so  many  years  has  been  closed  against  the  profitable  exchange 
of  her  mineral  and  agricultural  productions  with  the  other 
States  which  surround  her.  If  nothing  more  were  done,  her 
people  might  well  exult  in  such  a  vast  improvement  in  their 
condition.  But  the  Hiwassee  railroad,  extending,  as  it  will, 
the  benefits  of  this  improvement  to  a  much  higher  point  on  the 
Tennessee  at  Knoxville,  makes  the  completion  of  the  whole 
line  a  matter  of  intense,  and  almost  vital  interest,  to  the  whole 
of  that  large  and  interesting  portion  of  the  State.  We  have 
now  good  reason  to  expect  the  completion  of  this  latter  por- 
tion of  the  road.  The  company  has  been  newly  organized ; 
its  old  liabilities  have  been,  to  a  considerable  extent,  dis- 
charged, and  the  present  excellent  directory  have  exhibited  a 
laudable  determination  to  push  forward  the  work  with  vigor 
and  earnestness. 

From  Knoxville,  if  a  well  built  McAdamised  road,  extend- 
ing in  the  proper  direction  to  the  Virginia  line,  could  be  con- 
structed, and  the  principal  obstructions  in  the  Tennessee  river 
could  be  removed  to  the  nourishing  village  of  Kingsport,  East 
Tennessee,  reposing  amid  her  lofty  mountains,  would  be  sur- 
passed by  no  portion  of  our  State  in  the  abundant  means  of 
wealth  and  general  prosperity. 

If  these  grand  projects  cannot  be  carried  on  successfully  by 
individual  capital  and  enterprise,  it  will  devolve  upon  you  to 
determine  whether  any  and  how  much  assistance  can  be  furn- 
ished by  the  State.  The  objects  are  of  sufficient  importance 
to  engage  in  their  behalf  as  full  a  share  of  State  encouragement 
as  her  present  liabilities  and  means  would  render  prudent,  and 
to  this  extent  I  earnestly  recommend  the  subject  to  your  atten- 
tion. 

In  Middle  Tennessee  we  are  every  day  receiving  the  richest 
rewards   from  many   of  the  improvements  already  made. — 


404  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

The  eye  strikes  at  once  on  the  map  and  traces  out  the  many 
great  roads  stretching  across  the  State,  and  centering  at  Nash- 
ville, a  convenient  point  of  the  navigation  of  the  Cumberland. 
So  too*  it  glances  along  another  road  striking  from  Columbia, 
situated  in  the  very  heart  of  this  middle  region,  and  terminat- 
ing on  the  Tennessee  in  its  northern  sweep  through  the  State. 
Further  north  is  to  be  seen  a  fine  road  coming  in  from  Ken- 
tucky, terminating  at  Clarksville,  and  destined  to  contribute 
largely  to  the  prosperity  of  a  beautiful  town  now  rapidly  im- 
proving and  bidding  fair  to  become  one  of  the  most  important 
commercial  places  in  the  State.  Still  the  most  superficial  ob- 
server cannot  fail  to  perceive  the  immense  advantages  to  be 
derived  by  an  extension  of  the  Georgia  road  from  Chattanooga 
to  Nashville — advantages  not  to  Chattanooga  or  Nashville 
alone,  nor  to  the  counties  through  which  it  would  pass,  but  to 
almost  every  county  in  the  middle  portion  of  the  State. 
This  truth  is  every  day  becoming  more  manifest,  in  the  in- 
creased anxiety  every  where  displayed  in  favor  of  its  con- 
struction. The  corporation  of  Nashville  has  been  authorized 
by  the  popular  vote  of  the  city,  to  subscribe  for  half  a  million 
of  the  stock,  and  many  individuals  of  acknowledged  sagacity 
and  shrewdness  in  all  that  relates  to  the  profitable  investment 
of  their  funds,  are  known  of,  who  intend  to  embark  freely  in 
the  enterprise.  In  connection  however  with  this  work,  the  im- 
provement ot  the  Cumberland  ought  not  to  be  lost  sight  of. 
A  charter  to  individuals  for  this  purpose  was  granted  at  the 
last  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  singularly  defective  in 
some  of  its  provisions.  I  earnestly  recommend  its  supervision 
and  amendment  in  such  a  manner  as  to  insure  the  speedy  re- 
moval of  those  obstructions,  so  detrimental  to  the  commerce 
and  trade  of  the  middle  portion  of  the  State.  When  the  Chat- 
tanooga and  Nashville  railroads  shall  have  been  completed 
and  the  obstructions  in  the  Cumberland,  the  Elk,  the  Duck  and 
the  Caney  Fork,  shall  have  been  removed,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  any  region  in  the  world  possessing  more  advantages 
than  Middle  Tennessee.  With  a  soil  remarkable  for  its  fertili- 
ty— a  climate  happily  exempt  from  the  sickness  of  the  south, 
and  the  intense  protracted  cold  of  the  north — a  population  pro- 
verbial for  its  industry,  sobriety  and  enterprise — with  an  easy 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  405 

accessibility  by  her  roads  and  rivers  to  the  markets  of  New  Or- 
leans and  through  her  proposed  railroad  to  those  of  Charleston 
and  Savannah,  she  may  well  challenge  comparison  with  the 
most  favored  regions  of  the  Union. 

The  Western  District  of  our  State  is  happily  situated,  in  re- 
ference to  natural  facilities,  for  carrying  off  her  agricultural 
productions.  Lying  nearly  in  a  square,  she  is  surrounded  on 
three  sides  by  two  of  the  noblest  rivers  in  the  world,  while  the 
Hatchee,  the  Forked  Deer,  and  the  Obion,  all  navigable  for 
small  boats,  penetrate  into  many  of  her  richest  and  most  pop- 
ulous counties.  A  project  has  however  been  started  in  the 
south  proposing  to  extend  to  her  further  facilities  by  the  con- 
struction of  a  railroad  from  Mobile  to  the  Mississippi,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio. 

The  engineer,  Mr.  Lewis  Troost,  son  of  the  accomplished 
Geologist  of  the  State,  gives  the  following  description  of  the 
route  and  the  surface  of  the  country  over  which  it  is  proposed 
it  should  pass: — ■ 

"  Commencing  at  the  city  of  Mobile,  the  route  projected  is  in  nearly  a 
north  direction,  diverging  slightly  to  the  west,  on  the  comparatively  level 
lands  dividing  the  waters  of  the  Mississppi  from  those  of  the  Tombigbee  and 
Tennessee  rivers,  through  the  south-western  portion  of  Alabama,  the  east- 
ern and  north-eastern  of  Mississippi,  the  Western  District  of  Tennessee, 
and  the  south-west  corner  of  Kentucky  to  the  Mississippi  river,  at  or  near 
the  junction  of  the  Ohio.  At  this  point  it  is  suggested  to  cross  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  by  a  steam  ferry  ;  similar  to  that  over  the  Susquehanna  on  the 
line  of  railroad  between  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  and  to  extend  the  road 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 

"  The  distance  from  Mobile  to  the  junction  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio 
rivers  on  this  line,  would  be  about  four  hundred  and  forty  miles,  and  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  making  the  total  distance  from  the  city  of  St.  Louis  to  the  city  of 
Mobile,  equal  to  about  five  hundred  and  ninety  miles. 

"  A  glance  at  the  map  of  the  States  through  which  this  route  is  pro- 
jected, will  indicate  that  from  Mobile  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  there  is  not 
a  river  or  stream  of  any  magnitude  to  cross,  and  that  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  river  up  to  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  there  is  only  one  river,  the 
Maramec,  to  overcome. 

"  In  the  present  communication  it  is  proposed  to  say  nothing  of  that  part 
of  the  route  between  the  city  of  St.  Louis  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  as  soon  as  a  continuous  line  of  railway  exists 
from  the  waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Mississippi,  at  the  junction 


406  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

of  the  Ohio,  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  anxious  to  partake  of  the  advan- 
tages of  railroad  communication,  will  be  ready  to  meet  it  with  a  railroad 
from  their  city  to  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi. 

"  St.  Louis  is  the  great  depot  of  the  vast  productions  of  the  Upper  Mis- 
issippi  and  Missouri.  She  receives  and  distributes  supplies  for  an  immense 
extent  of  territory,  exceedingly  fertile  in  the  production  of  articles  which 
must  be  transported  to  markets  other  than  those  afforded  at  home.  Her 
navigation  to  these  markets  is  at  all  times  dangerous,  interrupted  frequently 
by  the  shifting  of  channels  and  the  accumulation  of  snags,  and  for  weeks 
in  the  winter  season  entirely  closed  by  ice.  Her  interests  will,  at  no  dis- 
tant period,  even  if  they  do  not  now,  point  out  the  necessity  of  having  con- 
stant intercourse  with  the  south,  uninterrupted  by  low  water,  by  ice,  or  by 
the  numerous  dangers  of  river  navigation. 

"  For  eighty  or  one  hundred  miles,  the  country  north  of  Mobile,  through 
which  the  railroad  will  pass,  is  described  to  be  a  comparatively  level  sandy 
region,  very  favorable  for  railroad  making,  and  covered  with  yellow  pine  of 
matchless  height  and  straitness,  affording  timber  of  excellent  quality  in  suf- 
ficient quantities  to  construct  the  road  in  its  progress  through  it. 

"  Thence  through  Mississippi,  and  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  where  the 
line  will  run,  the  natural  surface  of  the  soil  is  said  to  offer  no  obstacles  to 
obtain  a  strait  route  of  easy  grades,  without  heavy  excavations  or  embank- 
ments. The  character  of  the  grading  will  be  of  the  easiest  description, 
there  being  no  rock  to  encounter  except  at  the  northern  termination  of  the 
route,  near  the  Tennessee  and  Ohio  rivers.  Through  the  eastern  part  of 
Mississippi  the  route  will  pass  over  prairies  from  five  to  ten  miles  wide,  and 
from  twenty  to  thirty  miles  long.  From  surveys  made  for  railroads  through 
the  western  district  of  Tennessee,  the  natural  level  of  the  country  is  repre- 
sented to  offer  so  many  desirable  routes  in  this  respect,  that  the  chief  diffi- 
culty will,  perhaps,  be  in  selecting  the  mcst  favorable.  Parrallel  to  the 
Mississippi  and  Tennessee  rivers  are  two  ridges  of  highlands,  on  either  of 
which  the  road  might  be  located  to  advantage. 

"  The  main  line  can  be  made  to  form  a  junction  with  the  Tennessee  river 
at  or  near  Savannah,  or  at  Perryville,  which  is  in  the  vicinity  of  extensive 
beds  of  iron  ore.  At  either  place  it  would  intercept  the  trade  of  the  vallies 
on  both  sides  of  the  Tennessee  river,  which  now  has  to  perform  a  tedious 
voyage  around  by  the  Tennessee,  Ohio,  and  Mississippi  rivers,  of  from  four 
to  five  hundred  miles  before  it  arrives  at  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  as  the 
point  of  departure.  From  either  Perryville  or  Savannah,  at  the  great  el- 
bow formed  by  the  Tennessee  river,  a  branch  might  be  made  to  Nashville, 
avoiding  altogether  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  which  present  many  ob- 
stacles of  a  serious  kind  to  any  other  approach  to  Nashville  from  the  sea- 
ports on  the  South  Atlantic  coasts.  This  branch  to  Nashville  will  form  a 
link  of  the  great  chain  of  railroads  now  being  projected  to  connect  the 
Eastern  and  Middle  with  the  Southern  States,  by  running  a  line  of  railroads 
to  the  south  and  east  of  the  Ohio  river,  and  of  which  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  railroad  is  the  commencement.     By  the  proposed  route,  Nashville  can 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  407 

have  a  much  more  direct  and  expeditious  communication,  with  a  better  sea- 
port for  her  purposes,  and  by  far,  over  a  more  favorable  route  than  by  the 
route  she  is  now  seeking  to  establish,  via  Chattanooga.  That  this  branch 
to  Nashville,  considered  as  a  part  of  a  line  which  must  be  formed  at  no  dis- 
tant day  to  connect  the  Northern,  Eastern,  Middle  and  Southern  States 
together,  is  of  great  importance,  there  can  be  no  question,  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  it  will  run  through  some  of  the  richest  agricultural  portions  of 
the  Union. 

"  Through  the  Western  District  of  Tennessee  are  inexhaustible  beds  of 
marl,  cropping  out  at  the  surface.  This  valuable  material  for  agricultural 
purposes  will  form  a  great  article  of  transport. 

"  There  is  no  route  for  a  railroad  in  the  Union  to  compare  with  this. — 
Here  is  a  main  continuous  line  of  440  miles  in  length,  running,  without 
crossing  navigable  rivers  or  mountains,  through  the  richest  portions  of  three 
of  the  most  productive  States,  where  they  are,  in  a  great  measure,  deprived 
of  all  kinds  of  communication,  terminating  at  one  end  at  a  desirable  sea- 
port, and  at  the  other  where  it  can  command  the  trade  and  travel  of  eight 
States  and  the  western  territories,  with  latteral  branches  extending  by  short 
distances  into  the  richest  and  most  varied  agricultural  and  mineral  regions, 
which,  although  passing  through  different  State  governments,  will  be  gov- 
erned throughout  by  the  same  laws,  subject  to  the  same  institutions,  and 
will  be  under  the  same  management  and  responsibility." 

If  this  Mobile  project  be  too  vast  for  early  oi  eventual  exe- 
cution, the  sagacity  of  those  who  have  charge  of  it,  will  not 
fail  to  discover  how  much  better  it  would  be  to  make  the 
northern  terminus  on  the  Tennessee  river,  where  it  makes  its 
great  bend  through  the  State,  than  to  permit  it  to  fail  altogether. 
This  would  reduce  its  magnitude  to  a  size  entirely  practicable, 
and  be  to  the  city  of  Mobile  scarcely  less  profitable.  To  that 
point  at  or  below  the  town  of  Waterloo,  the  Tennessee  is  easily 
navigable  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  by  most  of  the  steamboats 
that  ply  on  our  western  waters.  Such  a  terminus  would  there- 
fore be  perfectly  accessible  to  all  the  commerce  of  the  Cum- 
berland, the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  and  Missouri,  which  might 
seek  an  outlet  through  the  Bay  of  Mobile.  Much  of  the  West- 
ern District  would  still  be  deeply  interested  in  its  success,  and 
the  State  would  doubtless  aid  and  encourage  the  project  pre- 
sented in  either  form,  by  all  the  means  which  could  at  any 
time  be  fairly  and  justly  appropriated  to  its  advancement. 

The  present  period,  however,  is  much  more  favorable  to  the 
execution  of  internal  improvements  by  the  enterprise  and  capi- 
tal of  individuals,  than  by  the  direct  appropriations  of  the 


408  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

States.  There  are  but  few  of  them  who  have  not,  on  former 
occasions,  either  for  banking  or  improvement  purposes,  con- 
tracted as  large  a  public  debt,  as  they  now  have  any  ability  to 
meet.  This  is  certainly  so  with  regard  to  the  State  of  Ten- 
nessee. So  far,  she  has  been  entirely  able  to  save  herself  from 
the  reproach  of  having  failed  to  meet  her  liabilities.  A  pro- 
per sense  of  pride,  justice  and  honor,  should  restrain  her  from 
now  creating  against  herself  any  new  liabilities  which  she  may 
have  no  means  of  meeting,  even  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
most  inviting  project  of  prospective  usefulness.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  people,  unlike  the  States,  are  less  involved  in  debt  at 
this  time,  than  at  any  recent  period.  They  have  been  blessed 
generally  with  good  crops  for  several  years,  which  have  com- 
manded remunerating  prices.  Other  pursuits  are  understood 
also  to  have  been  eminently  successful,  so  that  all  classes  of 
the  community  have  more  ability  than  usual  to  patronise  and 
encourage  all  safe  and  profitable  projects  that  may  be  pre- 
sented. 

It  is  to  this  individual  ability,  and  to  the  well  known  sagacity 
of  our  people,  prompting  them  readily  to  engage  in  all  safe  and 
profitable  investments,  that  we  ought  mainly  to  look,  at  least, 
for  the  present,  for  the  further  extension  of  our  system  of  Inter- 
nal Improvements. 

It  the  discharge  of  the  various  duties  which  devolve  upon 
you,  none  will  require  more  earnest  investigation  and  patient 
deliberation,  than  those  connected  with  the  important  interests 
which  the  people  have  in  the  successful  management  of  the 
Bank  of  Tennessee.  You  cannot  exercise  too  much  care  in 
looking  into  its  present  condition  and  its  past  management, 
with  the  view  of  discovering  any  defects  that  may  exist  in  its 
present  organization,  and  of  devising  the  best  measures  for 
increasing  its  usefulness  and  prosperity.  When  it  went  into 
operation  it  was  regarded  by  many  as  an  experiment  which 
would  inevitably  terminate  disastrously  at  an  early  day.  The 
absence  of  the  grand  conservative  principle  of  individual  in- 
terests was  the  alleged  capital  defect  in  its  organization,  on 
which  these  predictions  were  based  of  its  early  failure.  To 
this  suggestion  it  was  answered,  that  the  combination  of  the 
interests  of  Internal  Improvements  and  Education  with  Bank- 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  409 

ing,  would  furnish  a  substitute  for  individual  interest  equally 
efficacious  in  securing  a  faithful  and  successful  administration 
of  its  affairs.  The  experiment  has  now  been  on  trial  for  nine 
years,  a  period  sufficiently  long  to  enable  you  to  form  a  re- 
liable opinion  as  to  the  probable  success  or  failure  of  the  ex- 
periment. 

In  a  cheerful  investigation  into  its  past  operations  and  its 
present  condition,  shall  satisfy  you  that  it  has  failed  to  accom- 
plish in  a  reasonable  degree  the  important  objects  of  its  crea- 
tion, and  that  it  is  destined  unavoidably  to  end  in  ruin  and  dis- 
aster, it  would  become  your  imperious  duty  to  avert  the  threat- 
ened blow  by  an  immediate  provision  for  the  gradual  settle- 
ment and  liquidation  of  its  affairs.  If,  on  the  contrary,  such 
an  investigation  shall  produce  the  conviction,  that  the  experi- 
ment has  proved  reasonably  successful,  and  that  the  public 
interest  would  be  promoted  by  its  continuance,  the  duty  of 
exerting  the  most  possible  vigilance  in  guarding  it  against 
future  mismanagement  and  misfortunes,  will  devolve  upon  you. 

Without  assuming  to  pass  sentence  on  the  wisdom  of  estab- 
lishing the  Bank  at  all,  or  of  uniting  in  one  system  the  inter- 
est of  banking,  internal  improvement  and  education,  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  announcing  to  you  that  my  investigations  into 
its  past  transactions  and  its  present  condition,  have  disclosed 
to  my  mind  no  satisfactory  reasons  for  recommending  its  dis- 
continuance and  abandonment.  So  far  as  the  Bank  was 
designed  to  furnish  a  sound  and  safe  circulating  medium,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  it  has  been  thus  far  successful.  Its  in- 
fluence in  mitigating  the  pressure  of  the  pecuniary  embarrass- 
ment which  prevailed  during  the  several  years  of  its  existence 
has  been  universally  acknowledged. 

The  friends  of  education  have  abundant  cause  to  be  well 
pleased  with  its  promptness  and  fidelity  in  the  fulfilment  of 
its  obligations  to  Common  Schools  and  Academies,  whilst  the 
present  high  credit  enjoyed  by  our  State  securities  fully  attest 
its  successful  management  of  that  branch  of  our  financial 
affairs  which  have  devolved  upon  it.  Within  the  last  nine 
years  the  bank  has  paid  an  aggregate  sum  of  more  than  two 
millions  of  dollars,  which  has  been  appropriated  by  the  State 
in  diffusing  the  benefits  of  education  and  in  the  payment  of  the 


410  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

accruing  interest  on  her  debt.  Within  the  same  period  the 
nett  profits  of  the  institution  have  fallen  but  little  short  of  two 
millions  of  dollars,  showing  an  annual  average  profit  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars,  an  amount  equal  to  nearly 
eight  per  cent,  on  its  actual  capital. 

These  results  would  seem  to  go  very  far  towards  proving  that 
the  experiment  has  been  successful,  and  must  have  a  strong 
tendency  to  dissipate  the  fears  of  those  who  have  looked  to  its 
failure  as  inevitable — unless  it  shall  be  found  upon  investiga- 
tion, that  the  losses  sustained  have  been  unreasonably  large. 

In  the  examination  of  this  point,  it  will  become  material  to 
ascertain  at  what  period  of  time  the  largest  portion  of  the 
losses  have  occurred,  and  if  it  shall  be  found,  as  it  is  belived  to 
be  true,  that  they  occurred  at  an  early  period,  and  before  cer- 
tain important  amendments  were  made  to  the  charter,  and  that 
very  little  has  been  lost  since  that  time,  it  will  rather  furnish 
a  reason  for  an  increased  diligence  in  seeking  for  other  defects, 
than  for  the  total  abandonment  and  annihilation  of  the  system. 
The  main  ground  on  which  it  has  been  unsuccessful  in  accom- 
plishing the  objects  of  its  creation,  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that 
its  annual  profits  are  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  annual  pay- 
ments required  to  be  made.  This  objection  should  have  but 
little  weight,  if  the  burdens  impossed  upon  it  are  unreasona- 
bly great,  and  that  this  is  the  case,  will  admit  of  no  doubt, 
when  it  is  recollected  that  the  payments  required  to  be  made 
annually  amount  to  about  two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand 
dollars — an  amount  equal  to  more  than  nine  per  cent,  on  its 
actual  capital. 

In  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Bank  ought  not  to  be 
discontinued  and  wound  up  under  existing  circumstances, 
(whatever  my  opinions  about  bank's  of  paper  issue  may  be,) 
I  have  not  failed  to  be  duly  impressed  by  the  unavoidable 
pressure  in  our  monetery  affairs,  which  would  be  produced  by 
the  withdrawal  of  so  large  a  portion  of  our  circulating  medium, 
as  is  now  furnished  by  it,  and  by  the  collection  of  so  large  an 
amount  of  debts  as  are  due  to  it.  This  pressure  might  be 
greatly  mitigated,  but  could  not  be  entirely  avoided  by  adopt- 
ing a  liberal  policy  in  the  gradual  liquidation  of  its  affairs  ; 
nor  have  I   overlooked  the  difficulties  and   embarrassments 


GOVERNOR'S   MESSAGE.  411 

which  would  be  encountered  in  providing  the  means  of  meet- 
ing the  liabilities  impossed  upon  the  Bank  during  the  time 
required  for  its  liquidation. 

Influenced  by  these  considerations,  I  cannot  recommend  the 
discontinuance  of  the  Bank,  but  instead  thereof,  your  atten- 
tion is  most  earnestly  invited  to  the  investigation  of  such  meas- 
ures as  shall  promise  to  increase  its  profits,  and  render  them 
sufficient  to  meet  its  liabilities.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  for 
several  years  past  the  profits  made  at  most  of  its  Branches 
have  been  greater  than  those  made  at  the  principal  Bank  in 
proportion  to  the  capital  respectively  employed  by  them,  I  sub- 
mit to  you  whether  the  three  branches  now  in  a  state  of  pro- 
cess of  liquidation,  may  not  be  advantageously  restored.  In 
making  this  suggestion  it  is  proper  for  me  to  remark  that  it  is 
founded  on  information  not  possessed  at  the  former  session  of 
the  General  Assembly,  and  is  not  intended  as  a  condemnation 
of  the  act  by  which  these  branches  were  discontinued — that 
act  might  well  be  justified  under  the  impressions  which  pre- 
vailed at  the  time  of  its  passage. 

It  is  now  believed,  however,  that  the  progress  made  in  settling 
their  affairs  will  show  that  these  impressions  were  materially 
erroneous,  and  that  the  losses  sustained  ought  not  to  prejudice  the 
claims  of  those  interested  to  the  restoration  of  these  branches — 
being  fully  satisfied  from  a  careful  view  of  the  character  of  the 
population  interested,  the  anxiety  which  exist  amongst  them  for 
additional  banking  facilities,  (whilst  the  present  form  of  the 
banking  system  continues,)  and  the  increasing  commercial  in- 
terest at  each  of  the  places,  I  am  constrained  to  recommend 
to  you  that  these  branches  be  restored.  In  connection  with 
this  subject  I  feel  it  also  my  duty  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
claims  of  the  city  of  Memphis  to  an  increase  of  its  banking 
facilities.  The  rapid  growth  of  this  flourishing  city,  based  on 
its  proper  commercial  interests  and  advantages,  would  indicate 
it  as  one  of  the  most  eligible  points  in  the  State  for  profitable 
banking,  and  under  this  conviction,  if  you  determine  in  favor 
of  the  continuance  of  the  principal  Bank,  I  recommend  the 
establishment  of  a  Branch  or  Agency  of  the  Bank  of  Tennes- 
see at  Memphis,  with  such  capital  as  can  be  advantageously 
furnished  by  the   institution.     But  I  cannot  indulge  the  hope 


412  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

that  the  adoption  of  these  suggestions  would  enable  the  Bank 
to  increase  it3  profits  to  such  an  extent  as  would  meet  all  of 
its  liabilities — the  necessity  would  therefore  still  exist  for  an 
investigation  of  the  best  means  of  diminishing  the  present  lia- 
bilities of  the  Bank.  These  liabilities  at  present  amount  to 
about  two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  dollars  annually 
whilst  the  annual  average  profits,  heretofore,  have  been  about 
two  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  dollars. 

By  an  act  passed  in  1844,  the  Treasury  is  required  to  make 
up  the  deficiency  unavoidably  occurring  on  account  of  the  ina- 
bility of  the  Bank  to  make  profits  sufficient  to  meet  the  liabili- 
ties chargeable  upon  it.  I  submit  to  you  whether  a  sinking 
fund  could  not  be  set  apart  by  the  treasury,  without  any  in- 
crease of  taxation,  to  be  annually  vested  in  the  purchase  of 
State  Bonds  at  their  current  value,  as  a  means  of  gradually 
reducing  the  liabilities  of  the  Bank  to  a  sum  that  would  not 
exceed  the  amount  of  its  profits.  This  suggestion  will  receive 
additional  weight  from  the  consideration,  that  under  existing 
circumstances,  the  deficiency  may  be  permanent,  and  therefore 
constitute  a  permanent  drain  upon  the  treasury.  It  is  believed 
that  a  sinking  fund  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  furnished 
by  the  treasury  for  five  years,  would  so  far  reduce  the  State 
debt,  and  consequently  the  liabilities  of  the  bank,  as  would  en- 
able the  institution  after  that  time  to  meet  all  burdens  imposed 
upon  it. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  express  to  you  the  belief,  that 
the  bank  has  been  faithfully  and  satisfactorily  managed  during 
the  last  two  years. 

The  report  of  the  President  and  Directors  will  contain  all 
the  information  necessary  to  enable  you  to  understand  its 
present  condition,  and  to  devise  the  proper  measures  for  ren- 
dering it  more  useful  and  profitable  in  the  future,  whilst  it  will 
exhibit  a  very  large  increase  of  the  profits  during  the  last  two 
years. 

Since  the  last  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  a  war  has 
been  declared  to  exist  between  the  United  States  and  the  re- 
public of  Mexico.  The  circumstances  which  led  to  this  decla- 
ration were  such  as  to  extort  it  from  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote — abolitionary  fanaticism 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE,  413 

alone  stood  out  against  it.  Every  representative  from  Tennes- 
see, of  both  political  parties,  voted  for  it.  Ten  millions  of 
money,  and  authority  to  call  into  the  public  service  fifty  thou- 
sand volunteers,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  the  war  to  a 
safe  and  honorable  peace,  were  voted  by  Congress  and  placed 
into  the  hands  of  the  President.  Under  this  act,  a  requisition 
was  made  on  this  State  on  the  16th  of  May,  1846,  for  one  regi- 
ment of  cavalry  or  mounted  men,  and  two  regiments  of  infan- 
try or  riflemen. 

On  the  receipt  of  this  requisition,  I  issued  my  proclamation, 
dated  24th  May,  1846,  apportioning  the  call  equally  and  fairly 
among  the  three  grand  divisions  of  the  State.  It  was  nobly 
responded  to.  Instead  of  three  thousand,  about  thirty  thou- 
sand rushed  forward  with  eager  anxiety  to  engage  in  the  ser- 
vice of  their  country.  The  call  was  met  so  promptly,  that  the 
troops  assembled  in  advance  of  any  officer  of  the  United  States, 
either  to  muster  them  into  service,  or  to  make  those  usual  ad- 
vances of  money  so  necessary  to  troops  suddenly  called  on  to 
leave  their  home  on  so  long  and  distant  an  expedition.  To 
remedy  this  circumstance,  I  appointed  suitable  officers  to  in- 
spect and  muster  them  into  service  in  their  respective  quarters 
of  the  State,  rather  than  subject  them  to  the  uncertainty  of  be- 
ing rejected  after  they  had  gone  to  a  distant  place  of  rendez- 
vous. 

To  make  a  suitable  advance  of  money  to  each  officer  and 
soldier,  to  defray  all  the  expenses  incident  to  their  encamp- 
ment at  Knoxville,  Nashville  and  Memphis,  and  also  subsist 
the  East  Tennessee  troops  in  their  march  to  the  latter  city,  re- 
quired the  negotiation  of  large  sums  of  money. 

The  Union  and  Planters'  Banks,  with  a  patriotism  which 
cannot  be  too  highly  extolled,  promptly  stepped  forward  and 
proposed  to  lend  any  sum  of  money,  not  exceeding  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  each,  which  might  be  demanded  by  the 
occasion.  Without  any  law  authorizing  me  to  borrow  money 
for  this  or  any  other  purpose,  but  unwilling  to  submit  to  any 
delay,  I  took  the  responsibility  of  negotiating  with  the  Union 
Bank  for  some  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  dollars,  which  were 
applied  to  the  above  objects  of  expenditure.  So  soon,  however, 
as  our  troops  were  gone,  and  the  state  of  my  official  business 


414  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS, 

would  allow  of  it,  I  repaired  to  Washington  City,  whilst  every 
item  of  expenditure  was  fresh  in  my  recollection  and  those  of 
my  officers,  and  presented  my  accounts  for  settlement;  and  I 
am  happy  to  say  they  were  promptly  but  thoroughly  examined, 
and  allowed  by  the  proper  department,  with  perhaps  the  single 
exception  of  interest,  for  which  no  existing  law  of  Congress 
was  supposed  to  provide,  but  which,  I  doubt  not,  will  be  here- 
after adjusted  satisfactorily  to  the  bank.  It  is  with  pleasure, 
therefore,  that  I  inform  you  that  in  going  beyond  the  law,  and 
assuming  the  responsibility  of  raising  this  sum  of  money  as 
the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State,  no  debt  was  incurred  by 
which  the  State  can  be  in  any  wise  injured. 

The  advances  that  made  this  unauthorized  negotiation  ne- 
cessary, were  indispensable  to  the  comfort  of  the  troops. 
Volunteers  suddenly  called  on  to  leave  their  homes  on  such  a 
campaign,  could  not  well  afford  to  equip  themselves  out  of 
their  own  private  means,  and  to  support  themselves  in  their 
respective  encampments  until  the  arrival  of  the  officers  of  the 
United  States,  who  had  no  idea  of  so  prompt  and  early  a  move- 
ment, for  such  had  been  unknown  before  in  the  volunteer  ser- 
vice of  the  United  States  ;  nor  could  the  East  Tennessee  volun- 
teers, suddenly  called  on  to  march  four  or  five  hundred  miles 
to  Memphis,  be  expected  to  be  prepared  with  ready  means  of 
their  own  to  bear  their  expenses. 

But  whilst  I  took  on  myself  as  the  Executive  of  the  State  to 
make  this  negotiation,  I  endeavored  to  consult  the  most  rigid 
economy,  and  to  make  only  such  accounts  as  the  United  States 
would  recognize  as  just,  and  to  appoint  only  such  officers  as 
they  would  think  to  be  absolutely  necessary.  Under  this  view 
of  a  just  and  proper  economy,  I  left  the  troops  (except  those  of 
East  Tennessee,  on  account  of  their  distance)  to  subsist  them- 
selves on  their  travel  from  their  respective  neighborhoods  to  the 
places  of  rendezvous,  precisely  as  is  done  by  the  laws  and  reg- 
ulations of  the  United  States.  But  I  established  encamp- 
ments at  Knoxville,  Nashville  and  Memphis,  for  the  reception 
of  them  as  fast  as  they  should  arrive,  where  they  were  attended 
to  by  one  or  two  suitable  officers,  and  supplied  with  the  same 
rations  as  are  allowed  by  the  United  States  to  their  own  troops. 
These  arrangements,  I  am  happy  to  believe,  proved  entirely 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  415 

satisfactory,  not  only  to  the  United  States,  but  to  the  troops 
themselves,  with  perhaps  a  solitary  exception,  which,  as  it 
relates  to  my  Executive  action  in  carrying  out  the  requisition 
on  this  State,  is  here  submitted  for  your  consideration. 

On  the  6th  of  June,  1846, 1  received  the  following  commu- 
nication, recently  found,  after  diligent  search,  and  which  I  had 
supposed  might  have  been  thrown  aside,  as  not  important  to 
be  preserved : 

"  Camp  Brown,  June  5th,  1846. 
"  To  the  Hon.  A.  V.  Brown,  Governor,  &c. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  On  to-morrow  evening  I  will  have  the  honor  of  leading 
ninety-four  of  the  gallant  sons  of  Giles  County  to  an  encampment  on 
Brown's  Creek.  By  the  request  of  the  company  I  have  the  honor  to  ask 
of  you  the  favor  of  selecting  us  a  proper  and  judicious  place  of  encamp- 
ment, where  we  can  have  water  and  rest  on  Sunday.  We  have  camp  equip- 
age and  a  wagon,  and  will  be  prepared  to  take  care  of  ourselves  in  soldiers' 
style.  We  expect  to  be  ready  to  be  mustered  into  service  on  Monday 
morning. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant  and  friend, 
(Signed)  *  MILTON  A.  HAYNES, 

"  Captain  Giles  County  Mounted  Riflemen." 

This  communication  was  not  addressed  to  me  as  a  private 
individual — it  was  addressed  to  me  as  Governor  of  the  State, 
and  delivered  to  me  at  my  office  as  such.  It  spoke  nothing  of 
one  night,  but  several  nights,  and  the  greater  part  at  least  of 
the  two  days. 

It  made  no  allusion  to  going  at  all  to  the  encampment.  It 
asked  no  privilege  of  encamping  on  my  grounds,  nor  did  it  in 
the  slightest  degree,  in  form  or  manner,  call  up  the  question 
of  my  individual  hospitality.  It  avowed  the  intention  to  en- 
camp on  Brown's  Creek,  a  small  stream  of  excellent  water 
directly  on  the  road,  which  had  borne  that  name  from  the  ear- 
liest settlement  of  the  country,  and  on  which  I  had  no  lots  or 
grounds  at  all.  Regarding  it,  therefore,  as  an  application  to 
me  as  the  Executive  of  the  State,  for  the  selection  of  a  public 
and  additional  encampment  to  the  one  already  at  Nashville, 
I  returned  the  following  answer,  in  accordance  with  the  advice 
of  the  Adjutant  General  of  the  State  and  of  my  own  sense  of 

duty  and  propriety. 

28 


416  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

"  Nashville,  June  6th,  1846. 

"  I  have  no  opportunity  to  procure  an  encampment  in  the  neighborhood 
you  mention,  and  no  officer  to  send  to  attend  you.  My  encampment  at 
Nashville  is  at  the  Race  Track,  where  some  of  the  troops  are  yet  encamp- 
ed, where  you  and  company  can  have  provisions  and  horse  feed  provided. 

"  In  haste,  yours,  &c. 
(Signed)  AARON  V.  BROWN." 

This  reply  was  predicated  on  the  idea,  that  to  furnish,  as  I 
had  done,  the  three  encampments  at  Knoxville,  at  Nashville, 
and  at  Memphis,  with  suitable  officers  to  attend  them, 
was  all  that  a  just  sense  of  economy  and  the  practice  in  all 
such  cases,  both  in  and  out  of  the  State,  would  allow  of; 
besides,  I  was  by  no  means  confident  that  the  United  States 
would  settle  the  accounts  made  at  two  separate  encampments 
so  near  Nashville. 

No  other  volunteer  company  had  received  any  such  special 
accommodation,  and  I  desired  to  mete  out  the  same  measure 
of  justice  to  all.  To  avoid  all  difficulties  and  complaints,  and 
to  enable  the  company  to  reach  a  better  and  more  comforta- 
ble encampment  than  it  was  possible  to  furnish  at  Brown's 
Creek,  I  threw  open  the  doors  of  my  general  encampment  and 
invited  them,  by  a  march  of  an  hour  long,  to  partake,  with 
their  brother  soldiers,  of  its  ample  supplies  and  accomodations. 

I  lay  these  precise  facts  before  you,  that  they  may  go  upon 
the  permanent  records  of  the  country,  repelling,  as  they  do, 
every  idea  of  Executive  inhospitality  to  these  brave  and  gal- 
lant men. 

To  my  Quartermaster  General,  G.  W.  Rowles,  and  to  Major 
General  Brazelton,  and  to  Inspector  General  Coe,  and  Major 
General  Hays,  I  am  under,  and  the  volunteer  service  of  the 
State  is  under,  many  obligations  for  the  promptitude,  skill, 
and  energy  with  which  they  conducted  the  operations  in  the 
respective  divisions  of  the  State. 

In  the  transactions  of  the  middle  portion  of  the  State,  I  can- 
not withhold  from  Major  General  Bradley,  and  Adjutant  Gen- 
eral Turner,  equal  expressions  of  gratitude  for  the  services 
which  they  rendered. 

Early  in  the  month  of  June,  the  three  regiments,  (two  only 
fuljy  organized)  were  handed  over  to  the  United  States.     They 


GOVERNOR'S   MESSAGE.  417 

were  the  flower  and  chivalry  of  the  State.  The  sons  of  those 
worthy  sires  who,  under  Jackson,  Carroll  and  Coffee,  in  former 
days,  had  shed  so  much  lustre  around  the  name  of  Tennessee. 
Would  these,  their  descendants,  prove  themselves  worthy  of 
such  illustrious  ancestors  ? 

I  did  not  doubt  it — no  one  doubted  it — they  went  forth  in  a 
just  cause.  Not  one  of  them  felt  that  it  was  an  unjust  one, 
or  they  would  not  have  gone.  They  went  forth,  and  on  every 
battle-field,  at  Monterey,  at  Vera  Cruz,  at  Cerro  Gordo,  they 
performed  deeds  of  heroic  valor,  worthy  of  Tennessee  in  the 
proudest  days  of  her  glory.  But  it  was  not  on  the  battle-field 
alone,  that  your  regiments  bore  your  banner  so  high  and  so 
proudly.  In  the  toilsome  march,  beneath  the  burning  sun,  in 
the  pestilential  encampment,  everywhere,  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, your  volunteers  well  sustained  the  honor  of  the 
State.  In  behalf  of  our  whole  people,  I  recommend  the  strong- 
est expression  of  public  gratitude  and  admiration  for  their  he- 
roic services,  and  that  a  full  register  of  the  names  of  every 
soldier  of  the  three  regiments  be  made  out  and  safely  deposited 
in  the  new  capitol,  when  completed„that  posterity  may  know 
who  they  were  that  contributed  so  largely  to  the  honor  and 
glory  of  the  Commonwealth.  Let  the  State  contribute  largely 
to  the  erection  of  some  lofty  monument  to  the  memory  of  those 
who  fell,  either  in  battle  or  by  disease,  in  the  prosecution  of  a 
war,  which  could  not  have  been  avoided  without  a  sacrifice  of 
national  honor,  dignity,  and  character. 

But  the  patriotic  devotion  of  our  fellow-citizens  has  been 
tested  by  another  requisition,  recently  made  for  two  more 
Regiments  of  Infantry  from  the  State.  It  is  with  no  common 
degree  of  pride  that  I  announce  the  pleasing  fact  to  you,  that 
notwithstanding  the  many  appeals  made  to  the  people  of  the 
State,  through  a  portion  of  the  public  press,  and  the  debates 
and  discussions  of  the  past  summer,  against  the  justice,  pro- 
priety and  necessity  of  the  Mexican  war,  the  chivalrous  sons 
of  Tennessee  have  responded  to  the  call  with  a  noble  enthusiasm. 

Five  companies  were  called  for  by  my  proclamations  from 
each  Major  General's  division  in  the  State,  thereby  giving,  as 
on  the  former  occasion,  a  fair  and  equal  chance  to  the  citizens 
of  every  portion  of  the  State. 


418  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

Many  more  companies  reported  themselves  than  could  be 
selected  to  fill  the  requisition,  whilst  many  others  were  known 
of  who  were  in  a  forward  state  of  completion,  when  the  time 
arrived  for  making  selections.  It  cannot,  I  hope,  be  consid- 
ered invidious  to  mention,  that  East  Tennessee  was  peculiarly 
chivalrous  on  the  occasion,  having  furnished  not  only  the  five 
companies  called  for,  but  tendered  ten  other  companies  besides, 
composed  of  her  brave  and  hardy  sons.  The  officers  of  the 
United  States  having  learned,  by  experience,  something  of  the 
promptitude  and  celerity  with  which  the  citizen  soldiers  of  Ten- 
nessee always  rush  to  the  standard  of  their  country,  have 
promptly  repaired  to  the  State  to  aid  in  carrying  out  the  move- 
ment, exempting  the  Executive  from  much  of  the  labor  and 
responsibility  of  a  former  occasion.  The  volunteers  are  now 
on  their  way  to  their  respective  encampments  at  Nashville  and 
Memphis,  where  they  will  be  regularly  organized  into  Regi- 
ments, and  pass  over  to  the  command  and  service  of  the  United 
States.  If  the  war  continues,  the  whole  community  cannot  but 
feel  the  deepest  interest  in  the  future  destination  and  fortunes 
of  these  brave  and  gallant  men. 

The  career  of  their  predecessors  in  this  war  has  been  so  dis- 
tinguished— for  their  patience  under  fatigue,  for  their  ready 
obedience  to  the  command  of  their  officers,  for  their  undaunted 
courage  in  the  face  of  the  enemy — that  it  would  be  difficult  to 
emulate  their  bright  and  glorious  example.  But  I  hazard 
nothing  when  I  assure  you  that  these  regiments  will  go  forth 
nerved  to  new  energies  by  that  high  example,  and  firmly  resolv- 
ed, living  or  dying,  to  add  new  lustre  to  the  name  and  char- 
acter of  Tennessee. 

But  at  the  moment  when  I  am  writing  down  these  proud  and 
pleasing  assurances,  the  news  may  be  brought  to  us  that  a 
treaty  has  been  made,  terminating  the  war  between  the  two 
nations.  I  should  hail  with  rapture  and  delight  the  bright  and 
beautiful  Goddess  of  Peace,  at  whose  shrine  the  American  peo- 
ple have  always  delighted  to  worship.  Her  return  would  be 
more  welcome,  because  she  will  doubtless  bring  with  her  all 
that  was  ever  demanded — "  indemnity  for  the  past,  security 
for  the  future."  This  was  all  that  the  Administration  at  Wash- 
ington— the  President,  and  his  friends  in  Congress  and  through- 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE,  419 

out  the  Union — all  that  the  Commanding  General  in  his  Pro- 
clamation in  the  earilest  stages  of  the  war  ever  demanded. 
The  territory  she  is  expected  to  bring  will  be  stained  with  no 
blood  unjustly  shed,  in  the  proud  and  lustful  spirit  of  conquest. 
She  will  bring  it  as  the  only  indemnity  Mexico  can  offer  against 
the  expenses  we  have  incurred  in  the   prosecution  of  a  war, 
which  Mexico  herself  was  the  first  to   proclaim,  and  first  to 
commence.     A  war  originating  in  Mexico's  unjust  attempt  to 
reconquer  a  territory  which  had  been,  under  all  the  forms  of 
our  Constitution,  made  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union;  a  war 
which  she  wantonly  and  wickedly  provoked  by  an  invasion  of 
that  part  of  Texas   lying  east  of  the  Lower  Rio  Grande,  to 
which  our  title  extended  (whatever  might  be  said  of  the  Upper 
Rio  Grande)  without  a  shadow  of  a  doubt.     But  I  cannot  shut 
my  eyes  to  the  great  fact,  that  there  are  many  persons,  of  this 
State  and  elsewhere,  who,  in  anticipation  of  a  result  such  as 
we  are  now  considering,  have  labored  hard  to   convince  the 
people  that,  if  indemnity  in  land  against  the  expenses  of  this 
war,  and  for  the  purpose  of  paying  the  millions  that  are  due 
to  our  citizens,  should  be  willingly  offered  by  Mexico,  such  an 
indemnity  should  be  scorned  and  rejected.  Whether  the  infatu- 
ation of  party  will  persist  in  such  doctrine,  remains  to  be  seen. 
But  I  most  earnestly  recommend  to  this  General  Assembly, 
never  to  adjourn  until  you  have  instructed  your  Senators  and 
requested  your  Representatives  not  to  vote  against  a  treaty  of 
peace,  or  refuse  the  necessary  appropriation  to  carry  it  into 
effect,  only  because  it  may  contain  a  cession  of  territory  to  the 
United  States.    Indemnity  against  the  war,  I  hold  to  be  clearly 
right — Mexico  herself,  I  doubt  not,  will  so  consider  it.     Shall 
the  United  States  reject  the  indemnity  because  it   may  be  in 
land,  and  not  in  money  ?     She  has  not  the  latter  to   pay,  and 
the  former  constitutes  her  only  remaining  resource.     It  will, 
therefore,  be  indemnity  in  land  or  nothing.     /  repeat, in  land  or 
nothing.     What  wise  o**  sensible  man,  in  the  management  of 
his  private  affairs,  would  reject  a  payment  in  land  when  his 
debtor  had  no  other  resource  left,  with  which  to  satisfy  his  de- 
mand ?     The  plea  that  o*r  country  is  large  enough  already, 
takes  no  account  of  the  fuure  millions  of  freemen  who  are  to 
nhabit  it.     The  natural  increase  of  our  own  population — the 


420  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

amazing  emigration  to  the  United  States  from  the  starving 
and  oppressed  nations  of  the  old  World — the  genius,  industry, 
and  enterprise  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race— all  unite  in  demand- 
ing that  our  country  should  be  extended  from  ocean  to  ocean — 
widened  out  in  all  her  borders,  whenever  it  can  be  done  con- 
sistently with  the  dictates  of  national  honor  and  justice.  Such 
an  opportunity  will  now  be  offered  freely  to  us,  and  perhaps 
for  the  last  time  in  the  history  of  our  country. 

The  pretext  that  any  new  accession   of  territory,  may  en- 
danger the  perpetuation  of  our  glorious  Union,  is  only  a  shal- 
low device  for  alarming  the  timid  and  deceiving  the  ignorant. 
The  same  cry  was   raised  when  Louisiana,  extending  from 
the  Gulf  to  the  Northern  Lakes,  was  acquired — the  same  when 
Missouri  was  admitted — when  Florida  was  purchased — when 
Texas,  neither  conquered  nor  purchased,  walked  into  our  Union 
by  sovereign  compact  and  agreement.     The  Union  dissolved  ! ! 
dissolved  by  the  growth  and  enlargement  of  our  free  and  happy 
Republic!!     No.     It  grows  stronger  and  stronger  by  it;  the 
very  elements  of  perpetuation  being  increased  in  the  exact 
proportion  of  its  contemplated  magnitude.     The  spirit  of  mod- 
ern abolitionism,  if  it  existed  at  all  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Republic,  stood  rebuked  by  the  Constitution.     It  stood  equally 
rebuked  in  the  Missouri  compromise,  which  was  but  a  virtual 
continuation  of  that  of  the  Constitution.     So  it  will  be  in  the 
extension  of  the  same  line  on  latitude  thirty-six  thirty,  through 
the  newly  acquired  territory  of  California.     What  a  beauti- 
ful harmony  in  our  national  action  would  then  be  exhibited  ! 
Our  revolutionary   fathers  inadjusting  the  proportion  of  the 
fVee  and  slaveholding  States,  substantially  fixed  it  on  latitude 
thirty-six  thirty.     The    next  generation  (for  the  Revolution- 
ary one  had  nearly  departed,)  then  extended  that  line  through 
the  newly  acquired  territory  from  Francs,  and  now  it  is  pro- 
posed (and  to  this  I  give  my  assent,  anl  earnestly  recommend 
that  you  give  yours)  to  extend  this  linf  still  westward,  through 
the  territory  which  maybe  ceded  to  us  by  Mexico,  to  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific.     This  being  done,  ths  great  strife  and  conten- 
tion about  slavery,  we  may  hope,  /(rill  be  settled  and  ended 
forever.      Then   no  "  Wilmot  pro/iso"   will  break  upon   our 
repose,  like  a  fire-bell  by  night.     1  he  line  of  separation  will  be 


GOVERNOR'S  MESSAGE.  421 

fixed.  All  men  would  understand  it  and  conform  to  it,  in  the 
formation  of  States.  Nor  need  the  conscientious  and  sincere 
friend  of  the  black  race,  (for  there  are  many  such)  be  in  the 
slighest  degree  apprehensive  that  slavery,  though  permitted  to 
exist  south  of  that  line,  would  ever  be,  in  fact,  established  in  any 
one  of  the  States  of  California.  The  character  of  the  coun- 
try— the  nature  of  its  resources — the  insecurity  of  such  pro- 
perty on  many  accounts,  would  deter  any  slaveholder  from 
taking  that  description  of  property  with  him.  The  question 
about  slavery,  therefore,  loses  much,  if  not  all,  its  practical  im- 
portance in  relation  to  the  territory  now  to  be  acquired  from 
Mexico,  as  has  been  truly  said  by  one  of  our  greatest  states- 
men, and  said,  too,  at  a  most  auspicious  moment  for  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  our  country.  The  Union,  therefore,  I  hold  to 
be  in  no  danger  from  any  new  accession  of  territory.  I  believe 
that,  under  the  Providence  of  God,  it  is  destined  to  last  and 
endure  forever,  stretching,  like  the  beautiful  rainbow  of  Hope 
and  of  Promise,  until  it  bespans  this  whole  continent. 

A  vacancy  has  occurred  in  the  Supreme  Court  by  the  resig- 
nation of  Judge  Reese,  now  on  file,  to  take  effect  from  the  first 
day  of  the  present  month,  which  places  it  in  the  power  of  the 
General  Assembly  to  fill  it,  without  the  intervention  of  the  Exe- 
cutive. Another  vacancy  occurred  in  the  4th  Judical  Circuit, 
by  the  death  of  Judge  Cannon,  which  was  temporarily  filled  by 
George  W.  Rowles,  Esq.  Vacancies  in  the  4th,  8th,  and  10th 
Solicitorial  Districts  have  been  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Joseph  E.  Pickitt,  of  Carthage  ;  Mr.  J.  P.  Campbell,  of  Columbia; 
and  Mr.  T.  P.  Scurlock,  of  Jackson,  whose  commissions  will 
expire  with  the  close  of  the  present  Legislature.  Mr.  Nelson, 
Register  of  the  Mountain  District,  having  resigned,  the  vacancy 
was  filled  by  the  appointment  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Minnis,  and  subse . 
quently,  on  his  resignation,  by  the  appointment  of  Mr.  J.  F. 
Brown,  of  Sparta. 

It  will  also  be  your  duty  to  elect  a  Senator  to  Congress,  to 
supply  the  place  of  the  Hon.  Spencer  Jarnagin,  whose  term  of 
service  expired  on  the  4th  of  March  last.  I  need  not  antici- 
pate, by  a  single  remark,  the  care  with  which  you  will  select 
some  individual,  eminent  for  his  ability  and  patriotism,   to  fill 


422  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS, 

this  exalted  station,  at  a  crisis  so  important,  to  the  honor  and 
welfare  of  the  nation. 

I  have  now  presented  to  your  consideration  all  the  subjects 
which  I  desire  to  present  before  you,  and  close  this  communica- 
tion with  the  sincere  and  confident  hope  that  your  delibera- 
tions may  be  distinguished  for  their  harmony,  and  may  result 
in  the  advancement  of  the  best  interests  and  welfare  of  the 
State.  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 

Executive  Office,  October,  1847. 


VALEDICTORY  ADDRESS 
Of  Ex-Gov.  Aaron  V,  Brown,  delivered  October,  1847. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Senate 

and  of  the  House  of  Representatives : 

I  present  myself  before  you  to-day,  that  I  may  lay  down,  in 
your  presence,  all  the  power  and  authority  appertaining  to  the 
Executive  office  of  the  State — to  lay  them  down  at  the  feet  of 
the  Constitution,  that  you  may  presently  confer  them,  in  due 
form,  on  my  honorable  successor.  Such  has  been  the  declared 
will  of  my  fellow-citizens,  and  to  their  decision  I  bow,  without 
murmur  or  regret. 

In  the  two  years,  during  which  I  have  filled  the  exalted  office 
from  which  I  am  now  retiring,  events  of  the  greatest  magni- 
tude have  been  crowding  upon  us.  The  annexation  of  Texas, 
although  commencing  before,  has  been  consummated,  adding 
an  empire  to  the  republic ;  an  empire,  large  as  modern  France, 
with  a  soil  rich  as  that  of  Egypt,  and  a  climate  soft  and  deli- 
cious as  that  of  enchanting  Italy.  The  settlement  of  the  Ore- 
gon question  confirmed  our  title  to  another  empire,  larger  than 
the  first,  and  extended  the  now  undisputed  boundaries  of  the 
republic  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  When  these  two  great 
events  are  contemplated  together,  what  an  amazing  spectacle 
of  territorial  grandeur  does  our  country  at  this  day  exhibit ! ! 

At  first  we  had  but  thirteen  States,  stretching  in  narrow,  but 
dazzling  brightness,  all  along  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  In  a 
few  years,   our  population  scaled  the   eastern   mountains-*— 


424  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS, 

poured  itself  into  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  felling 
its  ancient  and  unbroken  forest,  building  up  towns  and  cities, 
rearing  halls  of  science,  and  temples  of  religion,  until  what  in 
the  old  world  would  have  required  a  long  succession  of  ages 
for  its  accomplishment,  is  here  presented  as  the  magic  work  of 
a  single  generation. 

But,  in  addition  to  all  this,  what  do  we  now  behold?  Yet 
another  empire,  large  as  Texas  and  Oregon  both  put  together, 
subdued  by  our  arms,  subjected  by  the  law  of  nations  to  our 
military  government,  and  destined,  as  I  believe,  and  hope,  ere 
long,  to  constitute  an  integral  portion  of  our  great  republic. 
Wonderful  nation!!  Stretching  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  great  inland  Seas  of  the  north ! ! 
Millions  yet  unborn,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  freedom,  who 
are  hereafter  to  inhabit  this  continent,  will  bless  and  honor  the 
memories  of  those  illustrious  statesmen  and  patriots  who  have 
made  or  confirmed  these  amazing  accessions  to  our  country. 

But  it  is  not  the  physical  grandeur  of  our  country  alone, 
which  should  challenge  our  patriotic  emotions.  After  a  long 
period  of  profound  peace,  when  her  old  and  renowned  warriors, 
who  used  to  adorn  her  camps  and  her  history,  had  all  been 
"gathered  to  their  fathers,"  she  has  raised  and  set  forth  a  new 
race  of  heroes,  whose  gallant  deeds  at  Monterey,  at  Buena 
Vista,  at  Vera  Cruz,  at  Cerro  Gordo,  and  at  the  late  great  bat- 
tles before  the  City  of  Mexico,  have  filled  America  with  joy, 
and  the  world  with  admiration. 

Nor  yet  is  it  her  amazing  expansion,  nor  the  heroic  deeds  of 
her  warriors,  that  should  challenge  our  highest  degree  of  patri- 
otic ardor.  No,  it  is  not  these,  great  and  dazzling  as  they 
maybe, — it  is  from  our  sacred  Constitution,  securing  to  us  our 
civil  and  religious  liberties,  and  from  our  glorious  Union,  pro- 
tecting us  in  their  enjoyment  against  all  foreign  enemies,  that 
the  patriot  should  draw  his  deepest  and  holiest  emotions.  By 
these  he  should  be  chiefly  inspired,  humbly  to  supplicate  that 
they  might  last  and  endure  forever — 

"  Till  wrapt  in  flames  the  realms  of  ether  glow, 
And  Heaven's  last  thunder  shakes  the  world  below." 

Turning  from  this  bright  and  animating  picture  of  national 


VALEDICTORY  ADDRESS.  425 

greatness,  let  us  look  to  the  no  less  cheering  and  happy  con- 
dition of  our  own  beloved  and  honored  Tennessee. 

You  and  I  (turning  to  the  Governor  elect)  have  lately  tra- 
versed her  in  all  her  borders ;  we  have  scaled  her  eastern  moun- 
tains ;  we  have  penetrated  her  rich,  luxuriant  valleys  ;  we  have 
reposed  on  the  banks  of  that  mighty  river  which  marks  her 
wrestern  boundary;  everywhere  we  have  seen  a  contented, 
happy,  and  patriotic  people — a  people  exempt  from  debt — their 
industry  crowned  with  abundance — their  institutions  of  learn- 
ing crowded  with  the  votaries  of  science ;  whilst  religion  is 
ministering  to  them  her  consolations  in  all  her  consecrated 
temples.  Such  are  the  people,  and  such  their  condition  at  the 
moment  when  you  are  called  to  preside  over  their  destinies.  I 
congratulate  my  fellow-citizens  that  such  is  their  condition,  in 
despite  of  all  the  prophetic  annunciations  of  approaching  ruin. 
The  ocean  and  the  lakes  have  become  no  vast  solitudes.  The 
husbandman  has  not  been  driven  from  his  home  by  the  stench 
of  the  rotting  productions  of  his  farm.  The  industrious  manu- 
facturer has  not  been  doomed  to  abandon  his  loom  and  his 
wrork-shop  for  the  already  too  much  crowded  pursuits  of  agri- 
culture. No.  Thanks  to  a  kind  and  overruling  Providence. 
Thanks  to  the  industry,  sobriety,  and  enterprise  of  our  people. 
Thanks  to  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  our  rulers,  however 
much  they  have  been  reviled  and  persecuted. 

Thank3  to  all  these,  that  prosperity,  like  an  angel,  is  still 
hovering  and  smiling  over  our  State  and  nation. 

I  should  have  rejoiced,  gentlemen,  if,  on  my  retiring  from  of- 
fice, I  could  have  congratulated  you  and  my  fellow-citizens  at 
large  on  the  return  of  peace. 

That  beautiful  goddess  is  yet  standing  on  the  confines  of 
Mexico,  holding  out  the  olive  branch  to  our  deluded  and  obsti- 
nate enemy.  Our  victorious  arms  have  wrested  from  her  city 
after  city,  and  province  after  province,  until  our  star-spangled 
banner  is  this  day  proudly  waving  over  the  halls  of  the  Monte- 
zumas.  But  let  it  be  ever  recorded,  let  all  Christendom  know, 
that  not  a  gun  has  been  fired,  not  a  city  has  been  taken,  not  a 
province  has  been  invaded,  without  our  having  first  tendered  to 
her  the  terms  of  a  just  and  honorable  peace.  "These  terms 
were  indemnity  for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future" — in- 


426  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS, 

demnity  for  the  millions  due  to  our  citizens — indemnity  for  the 
millions  which  we  have  expended  in  the  prosecution  of  a  war 
which  she  was  the  first  to  declare,  and  the  first  to  commence — 
security  against  any  further  invasion  of  territory,  which  has 
been  made  a  part  of  our  Union  under  all  the  forms  of  the 
Constitution,  and  to  which  she  has  no  shadow  of  right,  by  the 
solemn  declaration  of  every  civilized  nation  in  the  world. 
This  indemnity  and  security  we  will  have.  She  may  fly  from 
her  capital  io  her  mountains,  but  our  victorious  eagles  will  pur- 
sue her  to  their  loftiest  summit,  and  the  thunder  of  our  cannon 
will  extort  it  from  her. 

With  the  return  of  peace  with  Mexico,  with  no  cause  of  fu- 
ture irritation  with  any  foreign  nation,  with  all  the  elements 
essential  to  national  greatness,  what  prophetic  spirit  can  an- 
ticipate the  future  growth  and  progress  of  our  nation — all  that 
the  heart  can  desire — all  that  the  imagination  can  conceive  of 
— lies  before  us.  How  brilliant,  how  animating  the  prospect ! 
If  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  true  to  the  Constitution,  true  to  our 
bright  and  glorious  Union,  earth  has  no  happiness,  Heaven  has 
no  blessings,  which  may  not  belong  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

But,  gentlemen,  pleasing  and  delightful  as  are  these  medita- 
tions, I  must  not  and  will  not  forget  that  the  chief  honors  and 
ceremonies  of  this  occasion  are  intended  for  another,  I  there- 
fore conclude,  by  tendering,  to  you  all,  the  homage  of  my  pro- 
found respect. 


REMARKS 


Of  Mr.  A.  V.  Brown  in  the  Senate  of  Tennessee,  on  presenting 

the  Resolutions  proposing  to   give  the  Election  of  President 

directly  to  the  People,  on  Thursday,  Oct.  18,  1827. 


Mr.  Brown  laid  on  the  table  of  the  Senate  the  following  Reso- 
lutions and  remarks : 

Resolved,  By  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  That  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  should  be  so  amended,  as  to  give  the  elec- 
tion of  President  and  Vice  President  directly  and  conclusively  to  the  peo- 
ple, preserving  the  present  relative  weight  of  the  several  States  in  the 
election. 

Resolved,  That  many  of  the  measures  of  the  present  administration  of 
the  general  government  are  injurious  to  the  interests,  and  dangerous  to  the 
liberties  of  the  country. 

Resolved,  That  the  surest  remedy  for  these  evils,  now  in  the  power  of  the 
people,  is  the  election  of  Andrew  Jackson  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the 
Union. 

The  mode  of  appointing  the  President,  as  now  prescribed  by 
the  Federal  Constitution,  has  been  the  source  of  so  much  in- 
convenience, and  is  the  subject  of  such  general  discontent, 
that  a  sufficient  reason  for  recommending  its  amendment  need 
not  be  sought  in  the  experimental  nature  of  the  instrument  it- 
self. The  evils  inherent  in  the  last  election,  and  the  anxieties 
connected  with  the  next,  give  it  a  claim  to  public  deliberation, 
which  none  but  the  selfish  and  the  servile  can  disregard.  It 
cannot  be  fairly  denied,  that  the  choice  of  our  Chief  Magis- 
trate was  intended  to  spring  from  the  free  and  unobstructed 
judgment  of  the  people ;  and  it  must  be  admitted,  that  in  the 


428  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE. 

late  election,  which  was  conducted  according  to  the  forms  of 
the  Constitution,  that  intention  was  disappointed.  A  charter, 
the  letter  of  which  conflicts  with  its  spirit,  the  details  of  which 
counteract  its  principles,  is  certainly  defective.  On  the  occa- 
sion alluded  to,  the  candidate  who, in  the  primary  election,  ob- 
tained the  highest  number  of  votes,  and  at  the  moment  of  final 
competition  bore  incontestible  evidence  of  being  the  choice  of  a 
majority  of  the  American  people — evidence  which  subsequent 
popular  decisions  have  confirmed,  was  superceded  by  a  combi- 
nation, that  triumphed  only  because  the  competition  was  trans- 
ferred to  a  small  pre-existing  body  of  electors,  of  which  one 
party  to  the  combination  was  an  influential  member. 

The  crisis  was  calculated  to  awaken  the  worst  designs  of 
selfish  ambition ;   and  if  the  motives  of  men  are  to  be  deter- 
mined by  their  actions,  seems  to  have  had  its  sinister  opportu- 
nities fully  employed.     According  to  Mr.  Adams'  declarations 
in  his  book  on  the  fisheries,  as  well  as  to  recollections  and  con- 
victions resulting  from  the  public  observation  of  public  men, 
political  hostility  and  personal   estrangement  had  for  several 
years,  and  on  momentous  subjects,  separated  himself  and  Mr. 
Clay.     No  approach  to   union,  no   inclination   for  amity,  was 
manifested  by  either,  until  it  was  ascertained  that  as  long  as 
they  obeyed  the  principles  and  supported  the  opinions  which 
had  formed  their  respective   pretensions   and  produced  their 
avowed  opposition,  the  power  at  which  they  grasped  was  not 
to  be  gained — that  continued  disunion   would  frustrate,  and 
that  instant  combination  would  gratify  their  mutual  ambition. 
Then,  and  not  till  then,  long  cherished  distrust  was  mutually 
forgotten,  oft  expressed  opinions  were  practically  renounced, 
and  adverse  principles  openly  abandoned.     Each  became  the 
artificer  of  that  man's  promotion  whose  depression,  up  to  the 
moment,  had  been  a  chief  object  of  his  exertions.     The  high- 
est amount  of  executive   power  was  divided,  and  the  closest 
fraternity  of  political  fortune  was  established  between  them. 
What  is  enormous,  need  not  be  exaggerated ;  what  is  flagrant, 
requires  no  demonstration.     Mr.  Adams   desired  the  office   of 
President — he  went  into  the  combination  without  it,  and  came 
out  with  it.     Mr.  Clay  desired  that  of  Secretary  of  State — he 
went  into  the  combination  without  it,  and  came  out  with  it. 


MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS.  429 

Of  this  transaction,  the  simplest  history  is  the  best  analysis. 
Where  a  change  of  political  principles,  or  even  of  private  es- 
timation, is  the  immediate  cause  of  personal  gain  reciprocally 
to  the  agent  and  the  object  of  the  change,  impurity  of  motive 
is  necessarily  concluded.  Whoever  expects  otherwise,  must 
expect  the  laws  of  reasoning,  imprinted  by  the  Deity  on  the 
human  mind,  to  be  altered.  It  is  equally  certain,  that  a  daring 
ingratitude  is  displayed  by  the  citizen  who  insults  the  majesty 
of  the  people  with  the  very  power  which  their  generous  confi- 
dence had  placed  in  his  hands.  To  believe,  when  proof  is  in- 
sufficient, is  not  greater  folly  than  to  doubt  when  it  is  convinc- 
ing; and  where  circumstantial  evidence  is  conclusive,  positive 
testimony,  which  is  always  liable  to  a  corrective  collation  with 
circumstances,  is  rather  curious  than  valuable.  It  was  but  the 
other  day  that  an  atrocious  murder  in  the  enlightened  State  of 
New  York  was  detected  and  punished  upon  circumstantial  evi- 
dence; and  surely  a  process  of  reasoning  which  will  sanction 
the  destruction  of  one  man's  life,  is  rigorous  enough  to  deter- 
mine the  conduct  of  another.  Those  who  demand  stronger 
evidence  of  an  improper  understanding  between  Mr.  Adams 
and  Mr.  Clay  than  that  afforded  by  their  combination  itself, 
must  be  prepared  to  contend  that  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of 
things  for  circumstances  to  evince  guilt,  and  must  be  disposed 
to  suspend  their  judgments  until  the  parties  confess  their 
crimes.  It  ought,  however,  to  be  remembered  that  all  our 
knowledge  of  motives  and  character,  every  decision  we  form 
respecting  mental  occurrences,  is  drawn  from  the  considera- 
tion of  circumstances,  and  that  it  is  out  of  the  ordinary  course 
of  things  for  the  confession  of  the  accused  to  precede  the  sen- 
tence of  the  proper  tribunal. 

The  members  of  this  Assembly,  therefore,  in  protesting 
against  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams  as  impure  and  anti-repub- 
lican, are  sensible  of  no  precipitancy  of  judgment,  or  too  great 
a  license  of  language.  Unwilling  to  assert  what  is  doubtful, 
they  are  determined  to  speak  what  is  true ;  nor  do  they  deem  it 
necessary  to  fortify  their  protest  by  the  numerous  collateral 
proofs  to  be  derived  either  from  the  contradictions  contained  in 
the  studied  vindication  of  the  Secretary  of  State  ;  from  the 
confessions  of  his  friend,  his  colleague  and  his  champion ;  or 


430         ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE. 

from  the  pertinent  and  concurring  reminiscences  of  respecta- 
ble witnesses.  The  object  of  these  resolutions  being  remedial, 
not  vindictive,  it  remains,  after  exemplifying  the  actual  dan- 
ger of  the  present  plan,  to  show  the  probable  advantage  of  the 
amendment  proposed.  In  the  first  place,  by  giving  the  elec- 
tion directly  and  conclusively  to  the  people,  we  should  conform 
to  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government,  which  was 
departed  from  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  from  ap- 
prehensions, which  experience,  as  far  as  it  has  gone,  proves 
not  to  have  been  well  founded.  Another  benefit  will  be,  that 
the  dependence  of  the  Governor  on  the  governed,  so  desirable 
in  a  republic,  will  be  thus  effectually  secured.  A  consideration 
of  equal  moment,  both  as  it  regards  the  theory  and  practice 
of  our  government,  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  an  election 
placed  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  must  result  in  the 
expression  of  their  choice.  This  will  exclude  the  formidable 
evils  of  previous  cabals,  concomitant  corruption,  and  subse- 
quent resentments.  The  people  will  be  satisfied  with  their  own 
work,  and  at  succeeding  elections,  will  deliberately  confirm  or 
prudently  correct  their  former  preference.  Nor  is  it  probable 
that  thereby  purity  of  elections  would  be  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  public  tranquillity.  The  turbulence  apprehended  by 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  is  less  likely  to  be  excited  by 
the  process  of  a  fair  and  open  election,  than  by  the  conten- 
tions sure  to  arise,  under  the  present  narrow  system  between 
parties  inclining  to  practice,  and  parties  endeavoring  to  defeat 
corruption.  Besides,  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  fur- 
ther advanced  in  the  knowledge  of  self-government  than  they 
were  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted;  more  capable  of 
forming  a  prudent  choice,  and  of  avoiding  those  convulsions 
to  which  a  less  informed  community  might  be  exposed  by  the 
immediate  exercise  of  a  right  so  important.  The  division  of 
the  Union  into  States,  and  the  consequent  modification  of  the 
elective  process,  will  have  a  tendency  to  limit,  within  mode- 
rate bounds,  the  effect  of  any  agitating  impulse;  and  it  should 
never  be  forgotten,  that  when  any  faculty  of  government  is 
susceptible  of  salutary  exertion  by  the  people,  to  lodge  it  with 
a  body  of  trustees,  for  their  benefit,  is  an  odious  and  pernicious 
departure  from  the  cardinal  principles   of  free  government. 


ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE.  431 

These  are  some  of  the   reasons  which  may  be  assigned   in 
favor  of  the  first  resolution. 

As  experience  proves  that  the  present  system  has  a  ten- 
dency to  destroy  the  purity  of  elections,  it  also  shows  that  a 
bad  administration  is  likely  to  spring  from,  and  re-produce  an 
impure  election.  When  a  President  gets  into  power  with  so 
small  an  "  approach  to  unanimity"  as  to  be  indebted  for  his  of- 
fice to  the  rewarded  support  and  obvious  tergiversations  of  his 
most  inimical  competitor,  the  motive  which  reduced  him  to  this 
abasement  will  naturally  prompt  him  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment, not  with  a  view  to  the  public  welfare,  but  with  an  eye  to 
his  own  popularity.  Hence  those  branches  of  policy  which 
time  has  sanctioned,  and  the  fruits  of  which,  though  nutritious 
and  substantial,  are  neither  captivating  by  novelty  nor  daz- 
zling by  splendor,  will  be  neglected  for  visionary  and  ambitious 
schemes,  devised  to  amuse  the  imagination  of  the  public,  and 
to  reflect  on  their  authors  the  credit  of  superior  patriotism,  in- 
vention and  sagacity.  With  the  delusive  machinery  will  be 
combined  the  influence  of  Executive  patronage,  which,  in 
most  countries,  is  mighty,  and,  even  in  our  own,  is  powerful. 
This  great  engine  will  be  perverted  from  its  rightful  use  to  the 
purchase  of  praise  for  the  Executive,  and  aspersions  of  its  ad- 
versaries ;  and  should  eminent  services  and  virtue  render  any 
citizen  a  dangerous  competitor  for  the  Presidency,  slanders 
proportioned  to  his  merit  will  be  fabricated  by  interest  and  im- 
posed on  credulity.  Such  is  the  natural  history  of  power  un- 
justly acquired  in  a  free  country.  Since  the  last  election,  ac- 
cordingly, the  attention  of  the  general  government,  averted 
from  the  salutary  relations,  which,  for  a  series  of  years,  had 
secured  for  us  the  enjoyment  of  a  productive  commerce,  has 
been  devoted  to  the  formation  of  chimerical  and  intrusive  alli- 
ances, the  avowed  object  of  which  was  an  outrage  upon  the 
spirit  and  independence  of  the  nations  whose  religion  and  laws 
it  was  proposed  to  subject  to  our  kind  control  and  supercilious 
care.  The  mischief  of  this  ambassadorial  crusade,  of  this 
egregious  departure  from  that  modesty  and  reserve  (the  dic- 
tates of  dignity  and  prudence)  which  had  exalted  us  in  the  fam- 
ily of  civilized  nations,  promises  to  equal  the  absurdity  of  its 
conception.  Besides  the  unnecessary  and  enormous  amount 
29 


432  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

of  public  money  expended,   and  the  ridicule   and   censure  of 
foreign  nations  to  which  this  strange  embassy  has   exposed  us 
it  will  be  well  for  our  country  if  it  involves  us  in  no  other  and 
greater  calamities. 

To  suit  his  theory  to  his  practice,  the  President  claims  al- 
most boundless  authority  for  the  Executive;  ejects  the  Senate 
from  all  participation  in  the  institution  of  embassies  and  the 
commissioning  of  envoys ;  compares  the  influence  of  the  con- 
stituent on  the  representative  to  the  effect  of  paralysis  on  the 
human  body.  In  the  true  spirit  of  arbitrary  condescension,  he 
displays  to  the  nation  fantastical  projects  of  benefaction  and 
improvement,  befitting  the  gracious  king  of  star-gazing  sub- 
jects, rather  than  the  responsible  agent  of  free  people.  Nor 
is  the  profusion  with  which  public  money  is  expended,  and  the 
mismanagement  of  the  government  abroad,  greater  than  its 
profligacy  at  home.  The  chief  member  of  the  cabinet,  whose 
duties  require  his  greatest  sagacity  and  most  intense  applica- 
tion, annually  deserts  his  department,  and  displays  himself  as 
an  itinerant  Rhetor  at  electioneering  feasts,  exceeding  some  of 
his  colleagues  in  this  official  degradation  only  as  far  as  he  ex- 
ceeds them  in  ability.  In  the  days  of  Washington  and  Jeffer- 
son, it  was  not  in  this  manner  that  the  great  officers  of  State  were 
employed  ;  neither  Hamilton  nor  Madison  was  seen  traversing 
various  States  at  seasons  of  election,  to  rise  before  carousing 
multitudes,  and  to  pour  forth  praises  on  the  President  in  office, 
whilst  the  flood-gates  of  defamation  were  opened  against  his 
expected  competitor.  Those  great  men  never  dealt  in  bois- 
terous harangues,  unbecoming  the  gravity  of  statesmen;  in 
banquet  bravadoes,  consistent  neither  with  decency  or  cour- 
age; nor  in  bold  assertions,  bearing  no  comparison  with  facts. 
One  was  devotedly  engaged  in  the  definition  of  our  rights  at 
home,  and  in  the  expansion  and  security  of  our  interests 
abroad,  now  violated  and  neglected ;  the  other  was  sedulously 
employed  in  the  creation  of  a  system  of  economy  and  credit, 
now  impaired  and  abandoned;  whilst  both  had  exerted  their 
mighty  intellects  in  the  formation  of  that  bond  of  national 
union,  which  it  is  the  earnest  and  ardent  desire  of  this  General 
Assembly  to  maintain  and  perpetuate.  They  have  made  this 
brief,  but,  in  their  opinion,  impartial  reference  to  the  conduct  of 


ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT  BY  THE  PEOPLE.        433 

the  present  administration,  in  support  of  their  second  resolu- 
tion. 

In  regard  to  the  third  resolution,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say, 
that  the  acknowledged  popularity,  the  established  fame,  and 
well  tried  patriotism  of  Andrew  Jackson,  designate  him  as  the 
candidate  most  capable  of,  and  most  deserving,  a  successful 
competition  with  Mr.  Adams.  Here  he  has  been  known,  from 
the  dawn  of  manhood — through  the  vicissitudes  of  life  and  for- 
tune— in  peace  and  in  war — and  we  speak  the  sentiments  of 
our  constituents,  as  well  as  our  own,  when  we  declare  that  the 
fire  of  youth  never  impelled  him  beyond  the  bounds  of  honor, 
and  that  the  coldness  of  age  has  not  made  him  deaf  to  the 
voice  of  patriotism.  As  a  man,  he  has  always  enjoyed  our  pe- 
culiar esteem;  and  as  a  public  agent,  our  highest  confidence. 
The  force  and  fitness  of  his  intellect  we  have  never  found  infe- 
rior to  the  grandeur  of  his  character  or  the  lustre  of  his  fame. 
Conspicuous  for  the  charities  of  private  life,  and  alone  doubt- 
ful of  his  public  abilities,  he  has  seldom  left  its  sacred  retreats 
without  earning  renown  for  himself  and  glory  for  his  country. 
But  the  retreats  of  private  life  are  no  longer  sacred.  This  be- 
loved citizen,  this  genuine  republican;  venerable  for  his  age,  il- 
lustrious for  his  services,  and  still  more  illustrious  for  his  in- 
flexible patriotism,  has  seen  not  only  his  conduct  distorted  by 
slander,  and  his  glory  tarnished  by  calumny,  but  the  partner 
of  his  bosom  traduced  and  exposed  for  the  sport  of  the  idle 
and  the  malice  of  the  infamous.  That  couch  which  has  been 
so  often  forsaken,  that  others  might  sleep  in  safety  and  peace 
— that  breast  that  has  so  often  braved  danger,  that  others 
might  not  even  feel  its  alarms,  which  felt  a  stain  on  the  honor 
of  the  country  like  a  stab  into  its  own  vitals,  has  been  invaded 
and  cruelly  outraged.  That  some  of  the  members  of  the 
present  administration  of  the  Federal  Government  are  account- 
able for  the  slander  and  persecution  of  Gen.  Jackson  and  his 
wife,  is  reluctantly,  though  solemnly,  asserted.  No  moral  dis-  ' 
tinction  can  be  drawn  between  the  act  of  hiring  a  man  to  com- 
mit a  crime  and  that  of  rewarding  him  after  he  has  committed 
it;  and  it  is  notorious  that  the  prostituted  miscreants  who  in- 
vent and  circulate  these  slanders,  are  the  continued  objects  of 
ministerial  favor,  patronage  and  pay— hired  with  the  money 


434  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

of  the  very  people  whose  willing  gratitude  and  just  admira- 
tion are  the  real  causes  of  this  defamation  and  rancor.  This 
foul  injustice  not  only  aggravates  the  demerit  of  its  procurers, 
but  should  endear  to  his  country  the  hero  who  sustains  it.  As 
citizens  of  Tennessee,  we  feel  it  our  especial  duty  to  denounce 
it,  and  to  proclaim  our  proud,  our  fervent,  and  our  increased 
attachment  to  the  candidate  and  the  cause  of  the  people. 


REPLY  OF  MR.  BROWN, 

In    Support  of  the  Resolutions  on  a  preceding  page. 


Mr.  Speaker  S  Until  the  last  remarks  fell  from  the  gentle- 
man from  Knox,  I  did  not  intend  to  have  said  anything  in 
support  of  these  resolutions.  Even  now  I  do  not  intend  to 
discuss  their  merits.  They  contain,  as  I  conceive,  within  them- 
selves, sufficient  arguments  for  their  adoption.  An  intimation , 
however,  has  been  made,  that  they  were  introduced  to  catch 
the  gentleman  who  last  addressed  this  House.  Why  should 
I  wish  to  catch  him,  or  throw  any  impediments  whatever  in 
his  way?  (Mr.  W.  here  explained  and  Mr.  B.  proceeded.) 
My  purposes  in  introducing  these  resolutions  are  infinitely 
above  men  ;  they  relate  to  great  and  fundamental  principles  in 
the  administration  of  this  government.  When  they  were  in- 
troduced on  yesterday,  they  were  clearly  and  distinctly  read  in 
hearing  of  all  the  members  of  this  House.  They  have  been  on 
your  table  the  usual  period  for  examination  and  reflection : 
yet  gentlemen  allege  that  they  have  been  taken  by  surprise  ! 
Taken  by  surprise  as  to  the  incidents  attending  the  last  Presi- 
dential election  ?  They  have  been  known  to  the  nation  more 
than  three  years.  Taken  by  surprise  as  to  the  alarming  mea- 
sures of  those  now  in  power?  They  have  been  discussed  over 
and  over  again,  during  two  sessions  of  Congress.  Taken  by 
surprise  as  to  the  desperate  and  degrading  means  now  em- 
ployed to  secure  another  "  reign  of  terror"  over  this  republic? 
Those  means  have  been  used   publicly,  in  the  high  places  of 


436  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  earth,  and  it  is  strange,  indeed,  if  they  have  escaped  the 
most  superficial  observer. 

With  some  degree  of  emphasis  it  has  been  asked,  why  the 
Legislature  of  Tennessee  should  take  up  the  subject?     I  an- 
swer, because  Tennessee,  like  the  other  States  of  the  Union, 
has  suffered  by  the  shameful  incidents  alluded  to  in  these  reso- 
lutions.     I  answer   further,    that  the  State  of  Tennessee  is 
under  peculiar  obligations  to  enter  her  solemn  protest  against 
the  combinations  here  complained  of,   because   she  first  pre- 
sented Gen.  Jackson  to  the  nation  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency.    It  was  not  of  his  seeking ;   it  was  done  without  the 
slightest  procurement  or  interference  on  his  part.     Is  not  Ten- 
nessee, then,  at  least  excusable,  when  she  complains  of  the  un- 
holy combinations  which  defeated  him ;  of  the  vile  calumnies 
by  which  it  is  hoped  that  he  can  be  again  defeated  ?     It  was, 
however,  stated  by  the  gentleman  from  Knox,  that  one  mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Knox   County,  at 
the  session  when  General  Jackson  was  first  nominated  for  the 
Presidency,  had  been  heard  to  declare,  that  he  was  nominated 
only  to  make  a  diversion  in  favor  of  Mr.  Adams  to  the  preju- 
dice of  Mr.  Crawford.     If  it  was  intended  that  that  was  the  mo- 
tive of  the  particular  member  alluded  to,   I  have  nothing  to 
•ay.     But  if  it  were  intended  to  make  even  the  slightest  inti- 
mation, that  such  was  the  motive  of  the   General  Assembly 
wrhich  then  nominated  General  Jackson,  I  utterly  deny  it.     I 
was  then  a  member,  and  have  a  right  to  speak  thus  explicitly 
of  events  in  which  I  was  an  actor.     The  Legislature  of  Ten- 
nessee, in  submitting  his  name  to  the  nation,  was  influenced 
by  no  motive  of  hostility  either  to  Mr.  Adams  or  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, but  by  a  sense  of  gratitude  for  his  public  services,  and  just 
admiration  of  those  great  and  eminent  qualifications  which  it 
believed  fitted  him  for  the  office.     Besides  all  this,  it  seems  to 
me,  that  it  is  proper  for  this  General  Assembly  thus  to  express 
its  opinions,  on  another  account.     The  reputation  of  that  dis- 
tinguished individual  is  now   public  property.      His  fame  is 
identified  with  the  nation.     Every  public  assembly,  therefore, 
can  well  be  justified  in  defending  him  against  the  assaults  of 
defamation  and  malice.     Several  gentlemen  have  attempted 
to  rouse  the  conscientious  scruples  of  this  House,  by  assuming 


IN  SUPPORT  OF  RESOLUTIONS.  437 

the  position,  that  all  we  do  on  this  floor  is  under  the  sanction 
of  an  oath,  and  as  the  facts  alluded  to  in  these  resolutions  are 
not  personally  known  or  legally  proved  to  them,  they  cannot 
vote  for  them.  These  gentlemen  seem  to  know  everything  on 
one  side  of  this  subject,  and  nothing  on  the  other.  They 
know  all  the  good  actions  of  Mr.  Clay — his  eloquence  in  sup- 
port of  the  war — his  negotiations  at  Ghent — his  timely  interfer- 
ence to  save  the  nation  from  disunion  on  the  Missouri  question. 
But  unfortunately,  they  know  nothing  of  his  hostility  to  Mr. 
Adams  previous  to  the  last  election — nothing  of  his  sudden 
reconciliation — nothing  of  his  traversing  the  country  at  sea- 
sons of  election  and  making  electioneering  speeches  !  In  the 
same  way,  they  know  all  about  Mr.  Adams — of  his  writing 
against  Thomas  Paine — of  his  desertion  of  his  old  party  in 
1807 — of  his  hypocrisy  from  that  period  up  to  his  election;  all 
this  and  more  they  know  of  Mr.  Adams  when  contrasted  with  Mr. 
Crawford.  But,  alas,  when  contrasted  with  General  Jackson 
they  pretend  to  know  nothing  at  all  about  him  !  They  even 
talk  of  sending  for  witnesses,  issuing  subpoenas — as  though 
nothing  but  Court-House  evidence  will  induce  them  to  say  any 
thing  against  either  Clay  or  Adams.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  not 
disposed  to  be  quite  so  technical.  The  facts  alluded  to,  and 
collected  in  these  resolutions,  compose  a  part  of  the  history  of 
our  country;  I  am  sorry  to  say,  of  the  most  disgraceful  part  of 
that  history.  In  acting  upon  them  I  do  not  consider  myself  as 
swearing  to  their  correctness  ;  but,  sir,  I  do  consider  myself  as 
swearing  to  my  belief  of  their  correctness,  and  to  the  conclu- 
sions drawn  from  them.  In  this  spirit  and  with  this  understand- 
ing of  my  obligation,  I  introduced  them,  and  still  give  them 
my  cordial  support.  But,  sir,  I  did  not  then,  nor  do  I  now,  ex- 
pect some  others  to  give  their  sanction.  To  have  done  so, 
would  have  argued  the  most  profound  ignorance  of  the  politi- 
cal occurrences  of  the  times.  I  will  not,  however,  arraign  the 
motives  of  those  who  may  differ  from  me,  but  leave  them  to 
themselves,  their  country  and  their  God.  Whilst  pursuing  this 
course  towards  them,  they  ought  to  have  shown  equal  mag- 
nanimity and  charity  to  us.  Why  charge  us  with  man-idolatry  ? 
Why  charge  us  with  imitating  the  Hartford  Convention?  Is  it 
worse  in  us  to  idolize  Jackson  now,  than  for  them  once  to  have 


438  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

idolized  Crawford,  and  now  to  idolize  Clay  or  Adams  ?  As  to 
the  Hartford  Convention,  what  resemblance  can  be  found  in 
the  proceedings  of  this  House  to  the  treasonable  deliberations 
of  that  assembly  ?  Is  it  treasonable,  in  their  opinion,  to  de- 
nounce the  measures  of  this  mad  and  profligate  administration? 
to  protest  against  the  alarming  usurpations  of  the  second 
Adams,  as  the  old  Republicans  did  against  those  of  the  first? 
Surely  that  eye  must  be  evil  that  can  discover  the  slightest  re- 
semblance. 

Another  whimsical  suggestion  was  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  Knox — that  in  adopting  these  resolutions,  we  should  be 
taking  sides  with  Great  Britain  in  the  Colonial  trade  question ; 
and  that  they  would  seriously  embarrass  Mr.  Gallatin  in  his 
negotiations  at  St.  James'.  This  I  consider  a  very  foreign,  a 
very  far-fetched  notion.  Is  there  a  word  in  those  resolutions 
about  the  Colonial  trade?  It  is  true,  that  they  contain  a  con- 
demnation of  many  of  the  measures  of  the  administration. 
But  if  this  be  taking  sides  with  England,  if  this  be  embarrass- 
ing to  Mr,  Gallatin,  that  mischief  has  been  done  long  ago. 
The  debates  in  Congress,  the  political  essays  of  the  day,  the 
numerous  and  popular  decisions  made  all  over  the  nation, 
long  ago  told  to  England  and  to  the  world,  to  Mr.  Gallatin  and 
every  Minister  we  have  had  abroad,  that  Mr.  Adams'  mea- 
sures were  obnoxious  to  the.  American  people.  The  same 
gentleman  calls  for  proof  of  the  dangerous  tendency  of  the 
Panama  mission;  says  that  he  was  not  in  the  country  when 
that  subject  was  discussed  in  Congress,  and  therefore  would 
like  to  hear  something  about  it  on  this  floor.  He  even  demands 
the  treaty  by  which  these  "intrusive  alliances"  have  been 
formed !  Mr.  Speaker,  those  resolutions  only  speak  of  in- 
tended or  contemplated  alliances  ;  for  who  did  not  know  that 
no  treaty  had  been  made?  Who  did  not  know  that  our  Min- 
isters and  their  Secretary,  after  groping  about  in  the  Southern 
Seas,  spending  for  nought  thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  of 
the  people's  money,  returned  in  disgrace  to  the  United  States, 
and  reported  that  they  could  not  even  find  the  contemplated  Con- 
gress. It  is  not  now  attempted  to  vindicate  that  mission  on 
any  of  the  grounds  assumed  by  the  President  in  either  of  his 
messages,  or  by  any  of  his  friends  on  the  floor  of  Congress, 


IN  SUPPORT  OF  RESOLUTIONS.  439 

but  an  effort  has  been  made  by  the  gentleman  from  Knox,  to 
redeem  the  President  and  his  Secretary  from  the  contempt  and 
ridicule  to  which  it  has  exposed  them,  by  conjectural  surmises 
as  to  the  designs  of  Bolivar. 

He  supposed  the  Panama  Congress  to  have  been  gotten  up 
by  that  quandam  Washington  of  the  South,  to  aid  him  in  an 
ambitious  project  of  reducing  the  South  American  States  to 
his  imperial  sceptre.  That  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Clay,  apprised 
by  secret  agents  of  this  intention,  instituted  this  mission,  to 
warn  those  States  of  impending  danger.  Was  anything  like 
this  suggested  by  Mr.  Adams  to  the  Senate,  when  sitting  with 
closed  doors,  in  profound  secrecy  and  confidence?  No,  sir> 
nothing  like  it.  I  therefore  consider  it  only  as  an  after- 
thought— the  last  hopeless  apology  for  those  in  power — which 
will  no  more  justify  the  measure,  than  the  purposes  at  first 
avowed.  If  that  Congress  was  to  have  been  used  as  the  mere 
instrument  of  Bolivar's  elevation  to  the  imperial  crown,  what 
business  had  wre  to  be  represented  there  ?  If  our  ministers 
opposed  such  designs,  we  should  of  course  be  involved  in  the 
feuds  and  controversies  of  the  respective  parties,  and  if  Bolivar 
succeeded,  he  would  then  be  found  at  the  head  of  all  the  con- 
federated States  of  South  America,  a  bitter  and  implacable 
enemy  to  the  United  States.  Will  the  folly  of  this  mission  be 
less,  by  alleging  that  it  never  was  intended  for  our  ministers  to 
unite  in  their  deliberations,  but  only  to  act  as  counsellors  or 
advisers,  and,  in  some  sort,  as  spies  on  their  proceedings  ? 
Thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  are  then  to  be  thrown  away, 
only  to  give  warning  of  designs,  no  doubt  better  understood  by 
them  than  by  our  own  government  J  An  imposing  mission, 
fitted  out  in  full  national  splendor,  only  to  supply  two  idle 
danglers,  or  lobby  members,  to  Bolivar's  Congress  ! 

Both  of  the  gentlemen  who  oppose  these  resolutions,  call 
themselves  Republicans  of  the  old  Jefferson  school.  I  admire 
their  creed.  It  is  drawn  from  a  pure  and  unadulterated  foun- 
tain of  political  knowledge,  and  I  deny  that  any  one  principle 
taught  in  that  school,  is  opposed  to  these  resolutions.  What 
are  some  of  the  leading  measures  of  the  Jeffersonian  creed  ? 
"  That  the  people  is  the  source  of  all  power  and  the  fountain  of 
all  honor."     That  they  have  a  right  to  exact  obedience  to  their 


440  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

will  from  all  their  public  functionaries.     That  a   government 
instituted  for  their  "  peace,,  safety,  and  happiness;"  should  be 
administered  in  simplicity,  economy  and  purity.     Are  not  these 
principles  regarded  and  inculcated  in  these  resolutions?     The 
first  one  proposes  to  give  the  election  of  President  directly  and 
conclusively  to  the  people  :     The  second  condemns  measures, 
which  set  their  wishes  at  open  defiance,  and  prostrate  some  of 
their  dearest  rights   and  privileges :     The  third  proposes  as  a 
remedy  for  these  evils,  the  election  of  an  individual,  distin- 
guished for  his   qualifications,  his  public  services,   and,  above 
all,  for  his  devoted  attachment  to  the  constitutional  and  inhe- 
rent rights  of  the  people.     If  gentlemen  were  really  what  they 
profess  to  be,  it  seems  to  me,  that  they  would  not  be  found  in 
the  opposition  to  this  measure.     The  great  patriarch  of  repub- 
licanism sanctioned  the  principles  when  alive,  and  seemed  to 
call,  with  a  solemn  voice,  almost  from  the  tomb,  on  his  follow- 
ers, to  rally  around  the  man  u  who  had  filled  the  measure  of 
his  country's  honor."     The  Republican  party  must  unite,  if  it  is 
ever  restored  to  power.     They  must  unite  like  a  band  of  bro- 
thers, as   in  the  dark  period  of  '98,  or  the  sceptre  has  departed 
from  Judah  forever.      One   gentleman   was  unkind   enough, 
tauntingly  to  remind  us,  that  we  had  been  fired  upon  and  scat- 
tered like  birds.     I  know  it.     The  nation  knows  and  feels  it. 
Why  did  he  not  tell  you,  that  it  was  that  very  Kentucky  sports- 
man,  mentioned  in  these  resolutions,  who  had  fired  upon  and 
scattered  the  republican  party  ?     Why  will  not  that  gentleman, 
seeing  that  "  he  is  one  of  us,"  give  his  assistance  in  collecting 
the  scattered  forces  of  the  republican  phalanx,  and  retrieving 
the  misfortune  which  the  hypocrisy  of  the  President  in  1807, 
and  the  desertion  of  his  Secretary  in  1824,  has  brought  on  our 
party?     This  is  the  great  object  of  the  friends  of  those  resolu- 
tions.    They  wish  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  to  rise  up  and  vindicate  their  own  rights  ;  to  teach  the 
self-willed  politicians  of  the  day,  that  they  shall  not  set  at 
naught  their  instructions,   with  impunity.     In  short,  to  fight 
over,  in  the  persons  of  Jackson  and  the  younger  Adams,  the 
same  battle  that  was  fought  between  the  elder  Adams  and  Mr. 
Jefferson.     The  struggle  is  obliged  to  come  on,  and  none  should 
either  expect  or  desire  to  be  neutrals  in  it.     It  is  not  enough  for 


IN  SUPPORT  OF  RESOLUTIONS.  441 

gentlemen  to  cry  out,  we  used  to  be  for  Crawford !  They  must 
present  stronger  evidence  than  this  that  they  are  the  disciples  of 
Jefferson.  Whom  are  they  for  now  ?  The  question  reminds  me 
of  a  remark  submitted  by  the  gentleman  from  Bedford  which 
I  feel  bound  to  notice  :  That  many  men  in  this  State,  not 
having  merit  of  their  own  to  rise  upon,  make  ardent  profes- 
sions of  attachment  to  Jackson,  which  they  do  not  feel.  This 
is  no  doubt  true  of  some  of  the  friends  not  only  of  Jackson,  but 
of  Clay  and  Adams.  But,  sir,  is  this  worse  than  for  men, 
whilst  canvassing  before  the  people,  to  pretend  to  be  for  Jack- 
son, and  thereby  get  into  office,  and  then  turn  round  and  do 
him  all  the  injury  in  their  power  ?  Or  in  other  words,  is  it 
worse  than  to  sail  under  the  Jackson  flag  in  the  presence  of 
the  people,  and  so  soon  as  they  get  out  of  their  sight,  display 
the  broad  pendant  of  Adams  and  Clay  ?  The  gentleman 
disclaimed  "  all  allusions  "  to  me  in  his  remarks.  I  assure  him 
with  equal  sincerity,  that  I  make  the  same  disclaimer  as  to 
him. 

Allow  me  now,  sir,  in  conclusion,  to  observe  that  I  did  not 
rise  to  discuss  the  merits  of  these  resolutions,  nor  the  accom- 
panying remarks.  They  are  left  to  vindicate  themselves  ;  but 
in  the  course  of  the  debate,  some  positions  were  assumed  and 
suggestions  made,  which  I  felt  it  my  duty  thus  briefly  to  notice. 


AN  ADDRESS 

Of  the  Giles  County   Van  Bure.n  Committees,  to  the   Voters  of 

Tennessee. 


Fellow-Citizens:  In  pursuance  of  our  appointment,  and  in 
discharge  of  the  duties  it  enjoins,  the  undersigned  beg  leave 
to  address  you  on  the  absorbing  topic  of  the  Presidential  elec- 
tion. We  are  fully  apprised  of  the  great  solicitude  which  the 
people  of  Tennessee  now  feel  in  that  event.  We  remember 
well,  for  we  participated  with  you  in  the  feeling,  how  warmly 
you  exulted  on  two  former  occasions,  in  the  election  of  your 
most  illustrious  citizen  to  that  high  office.  We  remember,  too, 
how  eagerly  the  citizens  of  Tennessee  caught  at  the  very  first 
suggestion,  that  they  might  furnish  a  successor  in  the  person 
of  Judge  White,  and  know  well  how  reluctantly  they  will  part 
with  the  expectation  of  being  able  to  do  so,  whilst  a  single  ray 
of  hope  is  left  to  brighten  and  illumine  the  prospect — all  this 
was  perfectly  natural,  and  might  well  be  expected  of  a  gen- 
erous and  confiding  people,  grateful  for  long  continued  and 
faithful  public  services, 

Experience  has,  however,  long  since  taught  us,  that  our  first 
impressions  are  not  always  the  best  ones ;  and  that  in  a  gov- 
ernment like  ours,  it  is  often  dangerous  to  follow  the  sugges- 
tions of  local  partialities.  When,  in  1824,  the  ancient  Com- 
monwealth of  Virginia,  with  incautious  attachment  to  her 
Soutliern  favorite,  cast  Tier  vote  against  Gen.  Jackson,  little  did 
she  think  of  the  years  of  bitterness  and  sorrow  she  would  have 


AN  ADDRESS,  443 

to  pass  through,  in  order  to  retrieve  the  error.     When,  in  the 
same  election,  the  State  of  Kentucky  bestowed  her  suffrage 
on  her  own  favorite  and  talented  citizen,  when  there  was  no 
rational  hope  of  his  success,  little  did  she  suspect  that  she  was 
bringing  shame   and  defeat  on   the  great  republican  cause, 
whose  principles  she  had  always  sustained  with  such  gallant 
devotion  !'    Believing,  as  we  do,  that  if  Tennessee  errs  in  the 
coming  election,  it  will  be  on  the  same  ground;   and  being  so- 
lemnly convinced  that  such  error  must  be  followed  by  the  same 
bitter  consequences,  we  feel  disposed  to  appeal  to  our  fellow- 
citizens  to  review  their  first  impressions,  and  to  examine,  with 
care,  the  various  topics  fairly  involved  in  the  approaching  elec- 
tion.    We  propose  to  discuss  those  topics  on  the  present  occa- 
sion— temperately,  but  freely — to  assume  no  fact  which  we  do 
not  believe  to  be  true,  and  to  draw  no  conclusions  not  fairly 
warranted  by  those  facts.     We  propose  to  reason,  not  to  abuse ; 
to  argue,  not  to  upbraid.     We  should  despise  to  wear  the  lau- 
rels of  invective,  when  temperate  and  fair  argument  could  not 
achieve  the  victory.     In  Tennessee,  at  the  present  moment? 
there  is  peculiar  difficulty  in  observing  the  proper  courtesies  of 
debate.     In  our  public  addresses,  in  our  newspaper  communi- 
cations, and  even  in  our  ordinary  conversational  arguments, 
there  is  evidently  wanting  that  mutual  concession  and  forbear- 
ance, which  leave  the  social  relations  of  life  uninjured,  how- 
ever vehement  the  debate,  or  however  wide  the  difference  of 
opinion.     This  defect  does  not  arise  from  any  irritability  of 
temper,  so  much  as  from  the  great  unanimity  of  sentiment  that 
has  heretofore  prevailed  amongst  us,  in  relation  to  Presiden- 
tial elections.     All,  or  nearly  all,  of  us  have  been  heretofore 
in  favor  of  our  present  Chief  Magistrate — of  the  man  and  his 
measures.     Until  now,  we  have  undergone  no  discipline  in  the 
school  of  controversy,  where,  if  we  prove  truant  to  its  stern  and 
rigid  rules,  we  can  expect  nothing  but  friendships  severed,  and 
the  kindest  associations  of  life  sundered  forever. 

There  are  but  two  candidates  who  seem  to  occupy  much  of 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  Tennessee  in  the  present  elec- 
tion, and  both  claim  to  be  members  of  the  Republican  party. 
The  friends  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  claim  for  him  greater  accepta- 
bility, and  the  earliest  designation  by  that  party  as  its  candi- 


444  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

date,  and  deprecate  a  division  in  its  ranks  as  dangerous  to  its 
success.  The  friends  of  Judge  White  object  to  the  mode  of 
his  designation,  and  insist  that  all  caucus  nominations,  being 
unauthorized  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  or  by  the  Constitution, 
are  inconsistent  with  the  freedom  of  elections,  and  dangerous 
to  the  liberties  of  the  country.  This  we  believe  to  be  a  fair 
statement  of  the  original  issue  between  the  parties,  whatever 
form  more  recent  events  may  have  given  to  the  controversy. 
It  will  be  a  matter  of  surprise  to  the  future  historian,  to  find 
how  much  of  this  controversy  was  made  to  turn  on  the  mode,  or 
manner,  by  which  their  respective  claims  have  been  brought 
before  the  public  by  their  friends.  The  right  man  ought  always 
to  be  elected,  however  wrong  his  nomination.  No  imprudence 
of  himself  or  friends,  either  in  the  time  or  manner  of  bringing 
him  forward,  ought  ever  to  defeat  the  election  of  a  candidate 
w7hose  claims  were  superior  to  those  of  his  competitor.  But  as 
to  the  mode  of  nomination,  but  little  difference  is  perceivable. 
Both  were  nominated  by  a  caucus;  Judge  White  by  a  legisla- 
tive caucus,  Mr.  Van  Buren  by  a  national  one.  Both  were 
equally  self-constituted,  and  both  therefore  equally  irresponsi- 
ble. The  member*  of  the  Alabama  Legislature  did  not  pre- 
tend to  represent  their  constituents  in  their  conditional  nomi- 
nation of  Judge  White ;  and  if  they  had,  it  would  have  been 
notorious  to  the  whole  world,  that  they  were  never  delegated 
for  that  purpose.  They  could  only  presume  to  announce  their 
own  opinions,  and  what  they  supposed  the  opinions  of  the 
people  of  Alabama  to  be;  and,  therefore,  their  nomination  did 
furnish  some  evidence  of  public  sentiment  in  Alabama,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Presidency.  So  would  the  declaration  of  the  four 
or  five  hundred  persons,  whether  rendered  as  delegates  or  as 
individuals,  who  assembled  at  Baltimore,  furnish  like  pre- 
sumption of  the  state  of  public  sentiment  in  the  United  States. 
Neither  could  nor  was  intended  to  be  final  nor  binding  on  the 
people ;  both  were  intended  only  to  be  introductory  and  persua- 
sive; neither  was  valid,  unless  ultmately  confirmed  by  the 
people. 

Whilst  Judge  White  is  compelled  to  date  his  designation,  as 
a  candidate,  from  the  period  of  his  Alabama  nomination,  all 
candid  and  well  informed  persons  must  admit  that  Mr.   Van 


AN  ADDRESS.  445 

Buren  had  been  designated  as  the  candidate  intended  tob  e 
run  by  the  Republican  party,  long  before  the  Baltimore  nomi- 
nation. The  opposition  saw  it  whilst  he  was  a  member  of 
Gen.  Jackson's  cabinet.  They  saw  it  when  they  rejected  his 
nomination  as  minister  to  England.  They  saw  it  in  the  over- 
whelming vote  by  which  the  party  elected  him  to  the  second 
office  of  the  government.  It  was  so  declared  in  the  public 
journals  of  the  day,  and  was  perceivable  from  the  debates  on 
the  floor  of  Congress.  No  one  man  in  America  was  taken  by 
surprise,  for  all  men  anticipated  that  he  would  be  run  by  the 
party.  On  the  other  hand,  no  one  can  pretend  that  there  was 
the  slightest  anticipation,  either  by  friends  or  enemies,  that 
Judge  White  would  be  brought  forward. 

The  proceedings  by  Alabama  were  like  "  a  clap  of  thunder 
in  a  clear  sky,"  with  no  previous  glare  of  the  lightning  to  an- 
nounce its  approach.  As  to  priority  of  designation,  it  is,  there- 
fore, fair  to  say,  Mr.  Van  Buren  has  the  advantage  of  Judge 
"White.  As  to  the  mode  of  presentation,  if  Judge  White  rely  on 
primary  assemblies  of  the  people,  Mr.  Van  Buren,  before  and 
since  his  nomination  at  Baltimore,  can  outnumber  him  in  that 
way.  If  he  rely  on  legislative  nominations,  Mr.  Van  Buren 
has  an  equal,  if  not  a  greater  number  in  his  favor.  If  he  rely 
on  the  caucus  of  the  "  immortal  eleven,"  Mr.  Van  Buren  can 
cast  off  all  the  objectionable  votes  given  in  the  Baltimore  Con- 
vention, and  still  hold  up  that  nomination,  all  be-ruckered,  as  it 
may  be,  as  an  hundred  fold  better  than  that  of  Bell,  Crockett 
&  Co.  We  believe  the  plain  truth  of  this  part  of  the  subject 
is,  that  whilst  some  common  enemy  of  the  party  was  expected  to 
take  the  field  against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  the  whole  party,  to  a  man, 
Judge  White  and  all  his  friends,  were  resolved  to  stand  undi- 
vided and  unflinching  in  his  favor.  Then  no  one  of  the  Repub- 
lican party  denied  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  the  possession  of  abilities 
of  a  very  high  order.  Who,  then,  complained  of  his  tergiversa- 
tions and  inconsistencies  as  a  politician  ?  Who  branded  him 
then,  with  the  odious  epithet  of  Abolitionist,  alhougth  every 
one  knew  what  his  course  had  been  on  the  Missouri  question  ? 
Who  of  all  his  associates  in  politics,  (Judge  White  amongst  the 
rest.)  did  not  acknowledge  with  gratitude,  the  unwavering  sup- 
port given  by  him  and  his  friends,  to  Gen.  Jackson's  adminis- 


446  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

tration — not  in  the  days  of  sunshine  and  prosperity,  but  in  the 
darkest  and  most  gloomy  period  of  its  existence.  In  that 
celebrated  panic  session,  when  all  the  elements  of  opposition^ 
lashed  into  fury  by  three  of  the  most  eloquent  and  talented  men 
in  America,  if  not  in  the  world,  seemed  ready  to  sweep  away 
Jackson  and  the  Republican  party,  of  which  he  was  the  head 
and  representative.  During  that  session,  in  our  opinion  the 
most  critical  ever  witnessed  in  the  history  of  this  country,  all 
of  us  must  remember  how  firm  and  undaunted  Mr.  Van  Buren 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  President,  "  resolved  to  sink  or  swim, 
to  live  or  die,"  with  the  man  who  had  filled  the  measure  of  his 
country's  honor.  It  was  during  that  session  when  Virginia, 
that  Old  Dominion,  the  mother  of  so  many  Presidents,  deluded 
for  a  moment,  turned  coldly  away  from  him — Pennsylvania, 
too,  that  key-stone  of  the  arch — the  second  if  not  the  first  to 
bring  him  forward  for  the  Presidency,  terrified  by  the  threats  of 
the  United  States  Bank,  began  to  tremble  and  give  him  up.  If 
at  that  critical  moment,  the  Empire  State  had  not  stood  by  him 
and  sustained  hkn,  with  a  constancy  and  firmness  that  aston- 
ished and  delighted  every  republican  bosom  at  the  time,  all 
must  have  been  lost — Jackson  and  his  party  and  his  measures 
must  all  have  perished  in  one  common  grave.  Now,  all  this 
constancy  and  devotion  presented  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  a  con- 
spicuous and  shining  object  before  the  eyes  of  the  Jackson 
party,  no  respectable  portion  of  which  ever  dreamed  of  not 
supporting  him  against  an  opposition  candidate. 

Such  was  the  unanimity  of  the  Republican  party  in  his  favor, 
that  the  distinguished  leaders  of  the  opposition,  whose  claims 
had  always  been  looked  to  for  the  same  office,  stood  for  a  long 
time  baffled  and  discomfitted  in  their  hopes  of  a  successful 
competition.  In  this  state  of  irresolution  among  the  op- 
position, it  began  to  be  suspected  by  some,  that  probably  no 
candidate  at  all  would  be  brought  out  by  them,  and  in  that 
event,  there  was  no  necessity  for  all  this  unanimity  in  favor  of 
Mr,  Van  Buren.  Here  was  the  starting  point  of  all  Judge 
White's  aspirations.  It  was  here,  on  the  express  supposition 
that  no  opposition  candidate  was  likely  to  be  presented,  that  the 
friends  of  Judge  White  began  to  suggest  that  he  was  well 
qualified  for  the  office  of  Chief  Magistrate.     The  suggestion 


AN  ADDRESS.  447 

was  followed  up  by  some  popular  meetings  in  different  coun- 
ties of  this  State,  and  finally  ended  in  the  conditional  nomina- 
tion by  the  Alabama  Legislature,  and  the  annunciation  by  the 
eleven  members  of  Congress,  that  the  Judge  would  be  a 
candidate.  Now,  we  appeal  to  the  recollection  of  every  one, 
whether  in  all  those  popular  assemblies  it  was  not  well  under- 
stood, that  his  pretensions  were  urged  mainly  on  the  improba- 
bility of  an  opposition  candidate.  The  face  of  the  Alabama 
proceedings  shows  that  fact  in  that  State,  and  we  appeal  to 
the  documents  published  by  the  eleven  members  of  Congress 
to  show,  that  these  very  members  themselves  proceeded  in  the 
same  idea,  and  themselves  anticipated  the  probability  of  a 
mistake  on  that  point,  and  declare,  that  in  such  an  event  they 
owe  it  to  consistency  and  to  the  safety  of  the  party  with  which 
they  had  always  acted,  not  to  persist  in  urging  Judge  White's 
pretensions.  From  the  first  moment  of  his  being  mentioned 
as  a  candidate,  many  of  the  wise  and  experienced  members  of 
the  Republican  party  protested  against  it  as  hazardous  and 
impolitic ;  they  depicted  the  danger  of  disunion,  and  insisted 
that  the  fact  of  having  started  two  candidates  would  invite 
an  opposition  candidate  to  the  field.  Such,  however,  were  the 
confident  predictions  to  the  contrary  in  Tennessee,  that  Judge 
White  was  warmly  taken  up  and  pressed  through  many  public 
meetings  with  almost  undivided  enthusiasm.  In  the  mean- 
time the  opposition,  with  a  vigilance  that  never  slumbers,  and 
a  sagacity  that  never  fails  to  improve  every  opportunity,  lay 
back,  concealing  their  own  purposes,  whilst  the  whole  band  of 
them,  I\  unifiers,  Bankmen,  Federalists  and  all,  united  in 
chanting  the  praises  of  Judge  White,  until  his  friends  were 
truly  astonished  at  his  sudden  apparent  strength  and  popularity. 
Not  looking  beyond  the  surface  and  appearance  of  things,  nor 
suspecting  any  sinister  designs,  Judge  White,  in  an  unlucky 
moment — unlucky  for  his  own  fame  and  unlucky  for  the  interest 
and  safety  of  the  Republican  party — gave  his  assent,  and  sur- 
rendered his  name  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 

The  sagacious  of  all  parties  knew  well  how  to  account  for 

this  sudden  inflation  of  popularity,  whilst  others,  either  less 

observant  or  blinded  by  local  or  personal  attachments,  really 

entertained  the  opinion,  from  the  unexpected  developments  in 

30 


448  MISCELLANEOUS    DOCUMENTS. 

his  favor,  that  he  was  highly  acceptable  to  the  Republican 
party,  and  even  more  so  than  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Until  now  no 
party  caucus  or  conventional  designation  had  been  concluded 
on  in  favor  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Until  now  one  continued  and 
unbroken  line  of  circumstances  had  marked  him  out  as  the 
favored  and  intended  candidate  of  the  party.  But  when  all 
this  began  to  be  questioned,  and  some  of  the  party,  particularly 
in  Tennessee,  began  to  claim  for  Judge  White  an  equal,  if  not 
a  greater  acceptability  for  the  party,  then,  and  not  till  then, 
was  it  deemed  generally  to  be  either  necessary  or  proper, 
(though  some  might  have  proposed  it  before,)  to  hold  any  party 
consultation  on  the  subject.  It  was  about  the  time  to  which 
we  allude,  that  General  Jackson  thought  proper  to  advise  such 
a  consultation.  Of  that  advice — of  the  time  and  manner  of 
giving  it — and  of  the  foul  and  crying  injustice  which  has  been 
attempted  to  be  inflicted  on  him  for  having  given  it,  we  intend 
hereafter  to  speak.  We  advert  to  it  now,  only  to  give  date  to 
the  historical  narrative,  which  we  are  attempting  to  furnish. 
Against  this  party  consultation,  the  friends  of  Judge  White 
protested  with  perpetual  and  vehement  outcry.  An  adequate 
motive  for  doing  so,  may  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  in  a  consul- 
tation to  determine  which  of  two  party  candidates  should  be 
run,  none  but  the  sincere  and  known  friends  of  the  party 
would  be  admitted.  Now,  it  would  be  easy  to  foresee  what  the 
fate  of  Judge  White's  pretensions  would  be  in  any  consultation 
in  which  the  voice  of  the  Nullifiers,  Bankmen,  and  Federalists 
was  not  to  be  heard.  We  venture  the  assertion,  that,  exclude  the 
enemies  of  this  administration  from  having  a  voice  in  the  matter, 
and  Judge  White  cannot  now  and  never  could  have  gotten  a 
nomination  by  a  majority  of  its  friends  in  any  State  of  the 
Union— -Tennessee  only  excepted.  That  he  has  many  valu- 
able and  intelligent  supporters  here  and  elsewhere,  that  have 
always,  and  still  adhere  to  the  administration,  is  most  true,  but 
that  they  constitute  anything  like  a  creditable  approximation 
toward  a  majority  iit  any  State  in  the  Union,  with  the  excep- 
tion aforesaid,  is  utterly  denied.  Hence  the  evident  policy  of 
rejecting  all  general  consultations  with  the  party — of  going 
into  no  arrangement  which  did  not  let  in  and  receive  such  of 
his  new  fr fends  as  did  not  belong  to  the  ranks  of  the  adminis- 


AN  ADDRESS,  449 

tration.     This  policy  was  adopted,  has  been  persisted  in,  and 
will  never  be  departed  from  by  Judge  White  and  his  friends. 
He  and  they  know  that,  if  left  to  the  determination  of  the 
Jackson  or   Republican  party,  to  determine  either  by  State 
nominations  or  by  a  National  Convention,  which  shall  be  run 
as  their  candidate,  Judge  White  has  not  now,  nor  ever  had,  the 
least  chance  of  being  selected  for  the  purpose.     It  is,  therefore, 
evident  that  Judge  White,  though  he  may  be  in  his  own  person 
a  Republican,  and  we  have  always  so  esteemed  him,  yet  we 
boldly  aver  that  he  is  not  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 
party,  but  is,  on  the  contrary,  running  directly  against   the 
wishes  of  that  party,  and,  of  course,  is  relying  on  the  aid  of  its 
enemies  for  his  election.     We  have  always  admitted  that  Ten- 
nessee was  to  be  excepted  out  of  this  view  of  the  subject.     She 
from  the  first,  and  most  probably  up  to  the  present  moment,  is 
in  flavor  of  Judge   White,  and  yet  Tennessee  is  a  Republican 
State.     To  Judge  White  she  is  and  long  has  been  greatly  at- 
tached.    To  the  Republican  party,  too,  she  has  been  devoted 
ever  since  she  had  an  existence.     The  principles  of  that  party 
as  advocated  by  Jefferson,  was  the  glory  of  her  youth,  and  the 
same  principles  as  carried  out  and  practiced  by  Jackson,  have 
become  the  very  life-blood  of  her  existence  !     We  speak  of  a 
State  in  which  we  have  long  resided,  and  of  a  people  whom  we 
have  long  known,  when  we  say  that,  although  Tennessee  may 
linger  awhile  in  reluctant  surrender  of  one  of  her  favorite  citi- 
zens, yet  when  the  final  struggle  shall  come  on,  she  will  let  go 
her  hold  upon  men,  and  cling  to  her  principles,  with  a  death 
grasp  that  will  make  her  and  them  one  and  indivisible  forever! 
True,  a  few  months   may  disclose   the  refutation  of    a  now 
pleasing  prophecy  ;  still  we  cannot  give  up  the  hope,  that  when 
Tennessee  shall  look  out  beyond  her  borders — when  she  shall 
cast  her  eyes  over  the  combined  armies  of  the  opposition — 
when  she  shall  see  in  that  army  the  legions  of  Nullification, 
Federalism,  the   mercenary  Hessians  of  the   Bank,    and  the 
resuscitated  forces  of  the  American  System,  all  in  close  but 
unnatural  array  against  the  Republican  party,  she  will  not,  she 
cannot,  draw  the  sword  nor  lift  the  battle-axe  in  such  unholy 
combination  against  herself,  her   principles,   and  her  honor! 
Those  desperate  leaders,  who  would  plant  the  White  banner 


450  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

beside  the  black  cockade  of  Federalism,  and  who  would  mingle 
its  emblematic  folds  with  the  single  starred  colors  of  Nullifica- 
tion, will  then  find  that  the  people  of  Tennessee  cannot  be 
induced  to  follow  that  standard  into  such  strange  and  abomi- 
nable associations. 

If  it  be  inquired,  what  are  those  principles  to  which  Tennes- 
see is  likely  to  adhere  with  so  much  unyielding  tenacity,  we 
answer  that  they  are  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party. 
Those  principles  which  have  given  it  its  distinctive  character 
for  nearly  forty  years,  through  a  succession  of  administrations 
from  1801,  unbroken,  save  only  in  that  of  the  younger  Adams, 
for  that  whole  period;  principles  which  the  wisest  and  best  of 
our  statesmen  have  ever  deemed  of  the  highest  importance  to 
the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  country.  To  enumerate 
them  here,  would  imply  too  great  a  want  of  information  on  the 
part  of  those  whom  we  address,  and  to  attempt  to  vindicate 
their  correctness,  would  seem  like  superadding  to  the  labors  of 
Madison  and  Jefferson,  and  a  long  list  of  other  patriots,  whose 
names  are  embalmed  in  the  most  cherished  remembrance  of 
their  countrymen.  Granting,  however,  the  importance  and 
correctness  of  these  principles,  it  is  sometimes  asked,  how  are 
they  endangered  in  the  present  election  ?  We  answer,  by  the 
division  of  the  party  which  always  sustained  them.  Since  the 
great  civil  revolution  of  1801,  that  party  has  never  been  beaten 
but  once,  and  that  was  effected  only  by  division.  In  1824,  the 
Republican  party  presented  three  competing  candidates  for  the 
Presidency,  in  the  persons  of  Mr.  Crawford,  Mr.  Clay,  and 
General  Jackson,  whilst  the  Federal  party  presented  but  one, 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  Adams.  True,  Mr.  Adams  was  regarded 
at  the  time,  by  many,  as  a  Republican,  also,  but  the  entire 
unanimity  with  which  the  whole  Federal  party  was  supporting 
him,  soon  dissipated  all  ideas  of  that  kind,  and  the  subsequent 
events  of  his  administration  clearly  showed,  that  he  was  em- 
phatically the  candidate  of  the  Federal  party.  No  concert  of 
action — no  harmony  of  feeling — no  adjustment  of  pretensions 
took  place  between  the  three  Republican  candidates,  and  the 
consequence  was,  that  the  Federal  one  was  elected.  The  Re- 
publicans felt  the  shock  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the 
other.    Virginia  deplored  that  momentary  infatuation,  that 


AN  ADDRESS.  451 

made  her  cling  to  her  Southern  favorite,  long  after  she  had 
despaired  of  his  success.  Other  States  deeply  lamented  the 
same  error,  and  instantly  resolved  that,  as  division  had  lost  the 
sceptre,  so  harmony  and  concert  of  action  should  regain  it. 
Accordingly,  in  the  next  election,  the  Republican  party  concert' 
trated  its  whole  strength  upon  General  Jackson,  and  drove  the 
flying  and  broken  columns  of  Federalism  before  it  in  every 
direction.  Now,  when  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  Judge  White  were 
first  proclaimed  as  candidates,  both  claiming  to  be  Republi- 
cans, was  there  no  propriety  in  warning  the  party  not  to  be 
divided?  Was  there  nothing  in  the  experience  of  the  past 
which  might  induce  the  wise  and  prudent  to  advise  a  consulta- 
tion amongst  friends,  in  order  to  bring  about  an  adjustment  of 
their  pretensions  ?  The  ranks  of  the  Federal  party,  always 
strong  in  talents  of  the  highest  order,  had  lately  been  rein- 
forced by  the  Nullifiers,  whose  leader  possessed  more  lofty 
genius  and  consummate  tact  than  any  other  man  probably  in 
America,  and  whose  subalterns,  taking  them  rank  and  file, 
constituted  the  very  flower  and  chivalry  of  southern  talent. 
Add  to  these  the  acquisition  of  Mr.  Clay,  the  first  orator  of  the 
age,  with  a  strong  influence  of  western  friends,  wTho  had  long 
paid  homage  to  his  eloquence,  and  you  present  the  Federal 
party,  at  the  close  of  the  Panic  session,  formidable  in  numbers, 
powerful  in  talent,  and,  through  the  United  States  Bank,  in- 
exhaustible in  resources.  In  the  face  of  an  enemy  so  huge 
and  vast,  what  lover  of  his  country  can  lay  his  hand  on  his 
heart  and  conscientiously  blame  General  Jackson  for  warning 
his  countrymen  against  the  danger  of  disunion  in  the  Repub- 
lican party  ?  He  was  the  head  of  that  party — he  was  its 
representative,  and,  like  a  faithful  sentinel,  gave  the  alarm ! 
For  this,  he  has  been  denounced  by  a  vile  herd  of  editors  as  a 
Dictator  and  Tyrant,  and  by  his  own  representative  in  Congress 
as  an  Elective  Monarch ! 

Let  us  now  inquire  wrhether  all  these  apprehensions  of  dan- 
ger from  division  have  not  been  confirmed  by  subsequent 
events.  We  affirm,  that  the  number,  the  position  of  the  candi- 
dates, and  the  avowed  and  open  and  frequent  declarations  of 
their  friends,  place  the  Republican  party,  even  now,  in  imminent 
hazard  and  danger.     Should  Judge  White  succ  eed  in  carrying 


452  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

off  any  respectable  portion  of  the  party,  and  that  portion  should 
be  disposed  to  throw  itself  into  the  common  stock  with  Mr.  Web- 
ster and  General  Harrison,  the  result  becomes  intensely  dan- 
gerous.    The  two  last  have  always  stood  ready  for  amalgama- 
tion at  any  moment.     Identity  of  Federal  sentiments  produces 
a  mutual  sympathy,  which  would  render  such   amalgamation 
both  easy  and  natural.     As  to  Judge  White,  it  is  now  clearly 
proved  by  the  permitted  amalgamation  of  the   Harrison  and 
White  ticket  in  Virginia,  that  however  coyly  he  would  have 
submitted  to  the  caresses  of  the  opposition  at  first,  he  is  now 
considered  by  his  friends  as  ready  to  yield  himself  up,  soul  and 
body,  to  the  prostituted  embraces  of  all  sorts  of  associations,  in 
order  to  defeat  the  election  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.     Noone  of  the 
candidates,  Mr.  Webster,  General  Harrison,  or  Judge  White, 
ever  expected,  or  now  expects,  to  be  elected  by  the  people. 
Their  only  reliance  is  on  the  House  of  Representatives.     If 
Judge  White  were  to  receive  every  vote,  in  every  State  in  the 
Union  where  he  has  a  ticket  running,  he  could  not  be  elected. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  and  his  friends  do  not  deny  it,  that  he  is 
running,  not  for  an  election  by  the  people,  but  by  the  House. 
Now,  it  has  long  been  a  favorite  principle  of  the  Republican 
party,  never  to  let  such  an  election  go  before  Congress.     The 
contest  between  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Burr,  and  the  later  defeat  of 
Gen.  Jackson  before  that  body,  had  clearly  shown  tta  danger 
of  sending  it  there.     Not  the  least  doubt  can   exist,  that  if 
Judge  White  were  not  now  a  candidate,  Mr.  Van  Buren  would 
be  elected  by  the  College  of  Electors.     Here,  then,  is  one  of 
the  bitter  fruits  of  this  division  of  the  party.     It  is  thereby 
compelled  to  give  up  an  election  by  the  People,  and,  forced  by 
Judge    White,  to  receive  a  President,  whoever  he  may  be,  from 
the  foul  and  filthy  combinations  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives.    The  Republican  party,  at  this  very  moment,  is  deeply 
regretting  the  sacrifice  of  this  very  principle  in  her  creed,  and 
it  adds  not  a  little  to  her  affliction,  that  the  sacrifice  is  induced 
by  one  of  her  own  formerly  cherished  and  honored  members  ! 
Although  even  there  she  expects  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  will  proba- 
bly be  elected,  yet  she  feels   confident  that  the  country  cannot 
accept  him  from  the  hands  of  the  House,  with  the  same  confi- 
dent assurance  of  untarnished  purity  as  if  he  had  never  gone 
there. 


AN   ADDRESS.  453 

We  desire  the  people  of  Tennessee  to  pause  and  look  this 
one  fact  steadily  in  the  face,  that,  if  it  were  not  for  the  division 
made  by  Judge   White,  Mr.  Van  Buren   would  certainly  be 
elected  by  the  people  over  Gen.  Harrison  and  Mr.   Webster; 
that,  in  consequence  of  this  division,  all  the   attempts   at  an 
election  next  fall,  will  probably  turn  out  a  mere  idle  formality, 
an  empty  show — bringing  no  results  except  to  show  the  people 
how  impotent  they  are,  and  how  easily  Judge  W7hite,  with  the 
co-operation  of  Mr.  Webster  and  Gen.   Harrison,  has  divisted 
them  of  their  rights,  and  transferred  them  to  the  trained  and 
hackneyed  politicians  of  Congress.     All  this  is  now  known  to 
and  admitted  by  Judge  White  and  his  friends,  and  yet  he  shows 
no  disposition  to  heal  the  breach  he  has  made,  by  withdrawing 
from  the  contest  as  Judge  M'Lead  did,  and  thereby  restore  to 
the  people   their  just  authority  and  influence  in  the  election. 
But  if  Judge    White  will  persist  in  this  co-operation  with  the 
two  Federal  candidates,  to  throw  the  election  into  the  House 
of  Representatives,  where  no   sound-hearted  Democrat   ever 
desired  to  see  it,  it  becomes  you  solemnly  to  consider  whether 
you  will  continue  to  adhere  to  him  under  such  circumstances. 
In  sustaining  him  thus  far,  you  have  done  all  that  State  pride 
or  personal  attachment  required  at  your  hands.     To  go  for  him 
and  with  him  further,  is  to  sacrifice  one  of  the  oldest  and  best 
established   principles    of  the  Republican  party.     Those  who 
called  him  out,  did  not  require  or  expect  you  to  go  further. 
They  themselves  have  declared  that  he  ought  to   be  dropped, 
whenever  the  safety  of  the  party,  or  its  principles,  would  be 
endangered  by  continuing  to  run  him.     Under  this  pledge  and 
assurance  given  by  "  the  eleven,"  every  man  in  the  State   has 
a  right  now,  before  further  mischief  is  done,  to  require  and  de- 
mand it  of  them  to  withdraw  Judge  White  from  this  combina- 
tion with  the  Federal  candidates.     Instead,  however,  of  with- 
drawing him,  and  so  redeeming  their  solemn  pledges,  the  most 
distinguished  one  of  them  is  now  traversing  the  State,  in  order 
to    convince  you   that  it  is  well  enough  for  this  party  to  be 
divided — rthat  it  has  become  corrupt — that  its  head  and  leader 
has  made  this  Republic  an  Elective  Monarchy,  and  it  is,  there- 
fore, high  time  to  effect  its  overthrow  and  destruction ! 

This  bold  charge  of  corruption  against  the  administration  of 


454  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

Andrew  Jackson,  has  not  even  the  merit  of  novelty  to  sustain 
it.  It  is  the  old  charge  made  by  David  Crockett  at  the  close  of 
nearly  every  session  of  Congress  in  which  he  served,  as  an 
excuse  for  having  voted  with  and  sustained  the  opposition. 
But,  in  our  opinion,  it  has  as  little  truth  as  novelty.  General 
Jackson  has  changed  !  Why,  then,  is  it  that  every  Bank  man, 
and  every  Federalist,  and  every  Nullifier,  and  every  American 
System  man  in  America,  is  still  against  him  as  much  as  ever  ? 
Can  it  be  possible  that  Andrew  Jackson  can  have  become  false 
to  his  party,  false  to  his  principles,  and  false  to  his  country, 
and  yet  not  have  conciliated  a  single  one  of  the  various  parties 
and  interests  leagued  against  him  ?  No,  fellow-citizens,  the 
charge  is  false,  and  is  only  made  to  an  insulted  community,  in 
order  to  cover  the  disgrace  of  their  own  defection. 

We  know  the  earnestness  with  which  these  modern  seceders 
from  the  Republican  ranks,  insist  on  the  total  obliteration  of  all 
party  distinction;  their  arguments  on  this  point  are  based  on 
the  insulting  idea,  that  there  was  nothing  important  or  sincere 
m  the  mighty  struggle  which  has  been  going  on  for  nearly 
half  a  century  between  the  two  great  political  parties  of  this 
country.  Nearly  every  old  Federal  doctrine  has  been  revived, 
and  others,  more  modern,  but  not  less  dangerous,  have  been 
contended  for,  during  the  last  seven  years  of  Jackson's  admin- 
istration. But  the  people  of  Tennessee  have,  however,  united 
with  their  Republican  brethren  of  other  States,  in  sustaining 
the  venerable  representative  of  the  Republican  party  in  his 
noble  resistance  against  all  these  abominable  heresies.  How 
is  it  then,  that  at  the  close  of  his  administration,  when  all  these 
antagonist  principles  stand  out  in  open  array,  proudly  boast- 
ing that  they  will  prevail  and  triumph  against  his  successor, 
how  is  it  we  ask,  that  these  "no  party"  leaders  can  call  upon 
you,  at  such  a  crisis,  to  abolish  all  party  distinctions,  to  dis- 
miss all  your  forces,  to  disband  the  vetern  legions  of  Demo- 
cracy and  tamely  surrender  yourselves,  without  even  terms  of 
capitulation,  into  the  hands  of  your  enemies !  We  warn  you 
not  to  confide  in  such  advisers.  They  proclaim  "peace  among 
parties,"  when  they  know  there  can  be  no  honorable  peace. 
They  exhort  you  to  disband  and  unarm,  only  that  you  may  be 
an  easy  victim  to  Federal  domination  and  misrule.     They  give 


AN  ADDRESS.         -  455 

you  insidious  counsel,  that  would  betray  you  into  the  hands  of 
an  enemy,  who  would  delight  to  carry  you  in  chains  to  the  foot 
of  the  Bank,  or  to  lead  you,  in  triumphant  mockery,  through 
the  camps  of  Nullification  and  Federalism,  the  degraded  cap- 
tives of  your  own  credulity  and  folly.  These  enemies,  against 
whose  machinations  we  warn  you,  know  well  that  General 
Jackson  has  not  changed,  and  that  Martin  Van  Buren  stands 
bound,  by  repeated  and  public  pledges,  to  carry  out  the  mea- 
sures and  principles  of  his  administration.  These  pledges  they 
know  he  will  redeem,  and  in  that  redemption  they  see  their 
own  discomfiture  and  ruin.  On  the  other  hand,  they  have  seen 
repeated  symptoms  not  to  say  proofs  of  Judge  White's  defection 
from  Gen.  Jackson  and  his  administration,  which  encourage 
them  in  the  belief,  that  in  him  they  would  not  find  so  stern  and 
inflexible  an  opponent  as  in  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Nay,  more,  the 
recent  course  of  Judge  White  has  excited  high  expectations, 
that  from  the  obligations  they  may  lay  him  under  by  their  sup- 
port, and  from  the  hatred  now  excited  between  him  and  Gen. 
Jackson,  they  may  presently  claim  him  as  common  property  of 
all  their  different  factions — obedient  to  their  will  and  subject 
to  their  direction.  We  would  not  have  you  to  understand  thxt 
we  believe  all  these  degraded  expectations  would  ever  be  re- 
alized— for  although  we  are  opposed  to  his  election,  we  cannot 
believe  that  he  would  ever  become  such  a  puppet  in  the  hands 
of  any  set  of  wire-workers  whatsoever.  Still  we  do  believe, 
that  when  he  shall  know  and  feel  that  he  is  indebted  to  these 
factions  for  his  elevation,  and  without  their  continued  aid  he 
could  not  sustain  himself  in  his  new  office,  that  the  fear  of  dis- 
grace, added  to  a  sense  of  obligation,  would  exert  a  most  un- 
happy influence  over  him.  To  suppose  otherwise,  is  at  open 
war  with  the  known  principles  of  human  nature,  and  would 
exalt  Judge  White  too  high  above  the  ordinary  standard  of 
human  excellence. 

We  now  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  President's  dicta- 
tion. This  is  the  watch-word  of  the  White  party  in  Tennessee. 
It  is  found  in  every  conversation,  and  in  every  written  essay, 
on  the  Presidential  election.  It  is  now  used  by  the  managers 
of  the  Tennessee  press,  to  rouse  the  prejudices  of  a  brave  and 
jealous  people,  ever  ready  to  resent  the  slightest  encroachments 


458  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

on  their  rights  and  privileges.  Propose  to  such  a  people  to 
appoint  over  them  a  Roman  Dictator,  clothed  with  absolute 
authority,  and  you  rouse  into  action  every  indignant  feeling  of 
their  nature.  Or  tell  such  a  people,  that  some  great  man  of 
the  nation  has  issued  his  commands  or  has  sent  forth  his  orders 
exacting  obedience  to  his  mandates,  and  you  fill  them  at  once 
with  the  deepest  indignation.  All  this  is  well  known  to  the 
managers  aforesaid,  and  hence  it  is,  that  the  cry  of  dictation 
has  been  raised,  and  vociferated  from  one  end  of  the  State  to 
the  other,  against  our  heretofore  respected  and  venerated 
Chief  Magistrate.  These  adroit  managers  hope  to  excite  the 
people  to  such  a  height  of  jealous  indignation,  as  to  draw  off 
their  attention  from  the  investigation  of  the  truth  of  the  charges 
which  they  have  preferred  against  the  President,  and  thus, 
amidst  a  storm  of  calumny  and  detraction,  silence  the  admo- 
nitions of  one  of  the  best  and  purest  patriots  that  ever  lived. 
If  the  people  of  Tennessee  are  jealous  of  encroachments  on 
their  rights,  they  are  equally  intelligent  to  detect  the  shallow 
artifices  by  which  it  is  attempted  to  divert  the  noble  and  hon- 
orable frailties  of  their  nature  to  the  subserviency  of  party 
purposes. 

We  invite  them,  therefore,  to  suspend  any  momentary  indig- 
nation into  which  the  frequency  and  boldness  of  these  charges 
may  have  thrown  them,  and  temperately  inquire  whether  it  be 
true,  that  General  Jackson  is  now  attempting,  or  has  ever  at- 
tempted, to  play  the  dictator  over  you.  "  To  dictate,"  means 
to  declare  or  deliver  to  another  with  authority.  li  Dictation  "  is 
the  act  of  so  declaring  and  delivering  with  authority,  and  is 
very  nearly  the  same  in  its  import  as  the  word  command.  Ad- 
vice, counsel,  admonition,  are  all  totally  distinct  from  dictation. 
The  advice  of  a  friend  we  may  disapprove,  the  counsel  of  a 
parent  we  may  reject,  the  admonition  of  the  wise  and  great  we 
may  disregard  ;  still  we  never  speak  of  these  as  dictators,  or  as 
persons  who  intend  or  desire  to  enfore  obedience  to  their  sugges- 
tions. We  continue  to  honor  and  respect  them  for  their  good 
intentions  and  kind  feelings,  but  never  look  upon  them  as  ene- 
mies on  whom  we  should  heap  epithets  of  reproach  and  con- 
demnation. 

Now,  in  the  light  of  these  definitions,  we   invite  the  people 


Atf  ADDRESS.  457 

of  Tennessee  to  go  back  in  regular  review  to  the  various  acts 
charged  against  Gen.  Jackson  as  amounting  to  dictation.  The 
first  allegation  against  him,  is  the  celebrated  letter  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  James  Gvvin.  This  letter  was  written  about  the  time 
when  the  greatest  apprehensions  existed  of  danger  to  the  Re- 
publican cause  by  division  in  its  ranks.  The  wise  and  experi- 
enced and  virtuous  of  the  Republican  party  deprecated  the 
idea  of  the  Republicans  starting  two  candidates  for  the  Presi- 
dency. They  greatly  feared  that,  by  doing  so,  the  sceptre 
would  depart  from  their  hands  and  be  given  over  to  the  com- 
mon enemies  of  their  principles,  the  Nullifiers,  Bankmen  and 
Federalists.  Up  to  this  period,  General  Jackson  had  never 
interfered.  He  had  never  spoken  one  solitary  word  against 
Judge  White,  as  far  as  the  public  was  apprised.  But  one,  if 
not  more,  of  the  Nashville  papers  commenced  a  series  of  pub- 
lications, in  which  they  attempted  to  prove  that  Gen,  Jackson 
was  in  favor  of  Judge  White;  that  from  their  early  associations 
and  agreement  of  opinions,  he  must  of  necessity  be  so.  After 
urging  this  view  of  the  subjeet,  they  supposed  the  contrary, 
and  then  argued,  in  a  very  reprehensible  style,  that  the  people 
of  Tennessee  would  never  submit  to  the  dictation  of  General 
Jackson.  Let  it  be  remembered,  that  this  charge  of  dictation 
was  made  before  General  Jackson  had  said  one  single  word  on 
the  subject,  and  was  predicated  on  the  bare  supposition  that  he 
might  not  be  in  favor  of  Judge  White.  So  soon  as  these  arti- 
cles met  the  eye  of  the  President,  he  was  satisfied  that  he  ought 
to  interpose  and  prevent  the  impression  that  he  was  in  favor 
of  either  of  the  candidates,  or  rather,  that  he  was  not  more  in 
favor  of  one  than  the  other.  That  he  ought  to  interpose  to 
prevent  the  impression  that  he  was  in  favor  of  dividing  the 
party  which  had  so  gallantly  supported  him,  by  bringing  for- 
ward two  candidates,  to  the  evident  danger  of  defeating  both 
of  them.  With  this  view  he  wrote  the  Gwin  letter.  Now,  the 
question  is,  was  that  a  letter  of  dictation  ?  We  deny  that  it 
was;  the  friends  of  Judge  White  assert  that  it  was.  This, 
then,  is  the  issue.  Let  it  be  determined  by  the  letter  itself. 
We  suppose  it  to  be  in  the  recollection  of  the  reader,  and  chal- 
lenge the  pointing  out  of  a  single  clause  that  looks  like  dicta- 
tion.    He  complains  of  the  course  pursued  by  those  papers, 


458 


MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 


and  denies  that  they  have  any  authority  for  saying  that  he  was 
for   or  against  either  of  them.     It  then  avows,  that  he  is  in 
favor  of  that  one,  whoever  it  might  be,  who  could  concentrate 
on  himself  the  greatest  strength  of  the  Republican  party  ;  and 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  who  that  was,  he  recommended 
a  consultation  through  the  instrumentality  of  a   Convention, 
whose   representatives  should  come,  in  the  much  abused  and 
often  ridiculed  expression,  "  fresh  from  the  people."     We  write 
from  recollection  of  the  contents  of  that  letter,  and  aver  that 
no  part  or  clause  of  it  can  be  made  out  stronger  than  the  mere 
advice  and  counsel  of  General  Jackson  to  his  political  friends, 
and  not  a  dictation  of  his  will  and  pleasure,  to  deprive  them  of 
their  just  rights  of  voting  as  they  pleased.     Gen.  Jackson,  as 
the  head  and  representative  of  the  Republican  party,  may  well 
be  supposed  to  entertain  the  liveliest  solicitude  for  its  success 
and  preservation.     Believing  that  he  saw  danger  to  it  by  divi- 
sion, and  that  the  course  pursued  by  these  Nashville  newspapers 
was  making  him  instrumental  in  creating  and  increasing  that 
danger,  he  wrote  the  letter  of  counsel  or  advice  to  one  of  his  old 
neighbors  and  fellow-soldiers  in  his  wars.     Now,  for  doing  this 
he  has  been  denounced  from  that  day  to  this,  by  all  the  presses 
and  warm  advocates  of  Judge  White,  as  a  dictator  !     Is  it  dic- 
tation to  give  one's  advice  ?     If  so,  our  friends,  our  parents,  who 
warn  us  against  impending  dangers,  are  our  enemies,  and,  in- 
stead of  our  thanks,  ought  to  receive  our  maledictions.     True, 
General   Jackson  might  be   accused  of  giving  bad  advice,  or 
even  of  being  intrusive  in  giving  it  at  all,  but  that  is  not  the 
question.     It  is  not  whether  he  gave  good  or  bad  advice,  or 
gave  it  with  good  or  bad  manners,  but  whether  Gen.  Jackson 
has  dictated  to  the  people  of  Tennessee — whether  he  committed 
encroachments  on  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  people  when 
they  are  -approaching  the  ballot-box  ?     We  might  refer  to  the 
history  of  his  whole  life  for  a  refutation  of  such  a  charge.     He 
wTho  has  devoted  himself  so  long  to  the  service  of  his  country, 
who  has  so  often  risked  his  life  and  bared  his  bosom  in  defence 
of  the  peoples'  rights,  could  hardly  desire  now  to  turn  round, 
and,  with  unhallowed  violence,  take  them  away !     It  is  impos- 
sible that  it  can  be  so.     General  Jackson,  whatever  may  be  his 
anxiety  about  the  next  election,  we  feel  confident,  would  not 


AN  ADDRESS,  ,  459 

deprive  the  poorest  and  the  most  ragged  man  in  the  State,  of 
the  right  of  voting  as  he  pleased,  to  secure  the  election  of  any 
man  on  earth!  We  still  return  to  the  Gwin  letter.  We  hold 
the  calumniators  who  preferred  the  charge  of  dictation,  and 
the  designing  who  have  so  often  repeated  it,  to  that  very  docu- 
ment, and  demand  to  know  why  they  have  attempted  to  excite 
the  people  of  Tennessee  to  distrust  and  disaffection  against 
the  best  friend  they  ever  had,  on  such  false  and  baseless  a 
foundation.  Why  have  they  tortured  his  correspondence  into 
so  strange  and  unnatural  a  meaning?  Why  have  they,  when 
he  was  far  distant,  busily  engaged  in  administering  the  gov- 
ernment, in  precise  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  people, 
taken  the  advantage  of  him,  and  loaded  him  with  epithets 
which  he  never  deserved,  and  perverted  a  letter,  written  in  the 
spirit  oipaternal  counsel,  into  one  of  tyrannical  diction.  When  the 
excitement  of  this  election  is  over,  the  people  of  Tennessee, 
ever  true  to  him  who  was  ever  true  to  them,  will  tarn  and  de- 
mand a  terrible  settlement  of  accounts  with  all  those  who  have 
thus  traduced  him  and  endeavored  to  impose  upon,  them. 

We  will  now  consider  the  Gwin  letter  as  one  of  advice  and 
counsel,  and  see  if  the  Pesident  be  justly  blameable  for  having 
written  it. 

In  the  first  place,  these  newspaper  editors  at  Nashville,  had 
no  right  to  appropriate  Gen.  Jackson's  name  to  Judge  White, 
or  any  other  candidate.  They  had  no  right  to  make  the  public 
believe  that  Gen.  Jackson  was  in  favor  of  running  two  candi- 
dates on  the  Republican  ticket.  Such  an  impression  was  false 
in  fact,  and  placed  Gen.  Jackson  in  a  very  inconsistent  attitude 
before  the  nation.  These  editors  knew  this,  but  supposed 
that  as  Gen.  Jackson  was  a  great  way  off,  and  was  rilling  the 
highest  office  of  the  government,  that  either  he  would  not  see 
them,  or  seeing,  would  not  reply  to  their  publications,  ventured 
to  make  the  false  impression  in  Tennessee,  that  Gen.  Jackson 
was  in  favor  of  running  Judge  White.  It  was,  in  short,  an  in- 
solent attempt  to  dictate  to  Gen.  Jackson,  much  stronger  than 
any  he  has  made  to  dictate  to  the  people  of  Tennessee.  Gen. 
Jackson  had,  therefore,  a  clear  right  to  deny  the  assertions  and 
false  statements,  as  he  regarded  them,  of  these  editors.  When 
doing  so,  it  was  very  natural  and  proper  for  him  to  state  for 


480  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

himself  what  his  true  position  on  the  subject  really  was.  What 
was  that  position  ?  That  he  was  in  favor  of  whatever  candi- 
date was  most  acceptible  to  the  party  which  had  supported 
him  and  his  measures.  If  that  one  proved  to  be  Hugh  L. 
White,  then  he  was  for  him ;  if  it  proved  to  be  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
then  he  was  for  him  ;  his  great  object  being,  not  to  divide  and 
thereby  endanger  the  Republican  cause,  for  which  he  had  been 
toiling  and  laboring  for  so  many  years. 

But  in  writing  that  letter,  he  is  said  to  have  departed  from 
the  example  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  Mr.  Jefferson  has  set  us  no 
example  under  similar  circumstances.  When  Mr.  Madison 
was  about  to  be  brought  forward,  Mr.  Monroe  was  also  spoken 
of — they  were  both  equally  his  neighbors  and  personal 
friends — they  were  both  undoubted  Republicans.  There  could, 
therefore,  be  no  great  principles  involved — both  would  ad- 
minister the  government  on  principles  perfectly  satisfactory 
to  Mr.  Jefferson — hence  he  might  well  determine  to  pre- 
serve a  strict  neutrality.  But  who  can  believe  that  if  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  seen  the  Republican  cause  in  iminent  danger; 
who  can  believe  that  if  he  had  heard  the  war-dogs  of  Federal- 
ism howling  around  the  still  and  quiet  camps  of  the  Republi- 
cans, that  he  would  not  instantly  have  raised  the  alarm  ?  Every 
village  and  homestead  in  the  nation  would  have  heard  his  ap- 
peal, and,  like  Jackson,  he  would  have  exhorted  his  country- 
men to  union  and  harmony  of  action! 

Another  act  has  been  complained  of  as  an  unwarrantable 
interference  with  the  elective  franchise.  We  mean  the  frank- 
ing of  the  Globe,  a  newspaper  printed  at  the  city  of  Washing- 
ton, to  the  members  of  the  last  Legislature  of  Tennessee.  These 
newspapers  contained  the  speeches  of  Mr,  Benton  on  his  cele- 
brated "  Expunging  Resolutions."  The  practice  of  franking  (or 
sending  free  of  postage)  is  allowed  to  the  President,  and  other 
officers  of  government,  and  to  members  of  Congress,  by  the 
laws  of  the  land.  It  applies  to  letters,  newspapers,  and  other 
documents,  without  restriction  as  to  what  they  may  contain. 
Mr.  Benton's  resolutions  related  to  a  point  in  Gen.  Jackson's 
public  conduct,  of  the  greatest  delicacy  to  himself  now,  and  of 
the  highest  importance  to  his  future  fame.  The  most  factious 
and  corrupt  Senate  that  ever  sat  in  America,  had  branded  him 


AN  ADDRESS.  .  4(51 

on  its  journals  as  a  violator  of  the  Constitution  of  his  country. 
He  had  protested  against  this  act  of  unjust  condemnation,  but 
that  protest  had  been  insultingly  disallowed.  Having  no  other 
alternative  left  for  his  vindication,  he  laid  that  protest  before 
the  people,  and  appealed  to  them,  as  the  true  source  of  power 
and  final  arbiter  of  all  disputes  between  their  public  agents. 
Was  it  not,  therefore,  his  right  to  lay  before  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people,  all  public  speeches  and  documents  calcu- 
lated to  explain  and  vindicate  his  conduct  in  relation  to  the 
removal  of  the  public  deposites  ?  He  stood  unjustly  condemned 
by  the  Senate—he  was  earnestly  desiring  that  that  sentence 
should  be  reversed,  by  instructions  given  by  the  State  Legis- 
latures to  their  Senators  in  Congress.  He  was,  therefore,  per- 
fectly justifiable  in  sending  out,  under  his  frank,  every  speech 
or  document  calculated  to  shed  light  on  his  conduct.  The  right 
of  defense  you  allow  to  your  worst  offenders ;  why  then  shall 
it  not  be  given  to  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of  the  age  ? 
But,  it  is  said  that  such  documents  and  speeches  were  calculated 
to  injure  Judge  White  in  the  same  proportion  as  they  might 
benefit  Gen.  Jackson.  Let  this  be  granted,  and  then  we  de- 
mand to  know  why  Gen.  Jackson  shall  be  denied  the  benefit  of 
his  appeal  to  the  people,  because  Judge  White  was  opposing 
that  appeal,  and  was  unwilling  to  have  this  foul  reproach  ex- 
punged from  the  journals,  where  it  ought  never  to  have  been 
placed.  Gen.  Jackson  had  made  that  appeal,  and  Mr.  Benton 
had  notified  the  country  that  he  would  never  cease  his  efforts 
to  wipe  out  the  stigma,  long  before  Judge  White  became  a  can- 
didate for  the  Presidency,  or  any  of  his  friends  dreamed  that 
such  high  destiny  awaited  him.  If  he  chose  afterward  to  op- 
pose that  appeal,  and  to  join  in  with  the  defamers  of  the  Presi- 
dent in  holding  the  unjust  stigma  to  the  record,  ought  he  to 
expect  Gen.  Jackson  to  give  over  his  exertions  and  to  abandon 
his  defence,  only  because  it  brought  into  question  the  cause  and 
conduct  of  Judge  White? 

We  do  not  intend  to  discuss  the  expunging  question,  we  mean 
only  to  vindicate  the  President  from  the  charge  of  intending 
to  injure  Judge  Wliite,  by  abusing  his  franking  privileges.  He 
was  strictly  engaged  in  his  own  defence,  in  the  vindication  of  his 
own  character,  and  had  set  out  and  determined  on  that  vindi- 


462  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

cation  long  before  Judge  White  was  interested  in  the  subject. 
Another,  and  the  last  charge  we  shall  notice,   is  that  which 
relates  to  the  conduct  of  the  President  during  his  late  visit  to 
Tennessee.     During  that  visit  he  has  been  abused  and  misre- 
presented in  the  most  wanton  and  shameful  manner.     He  de- 
clared that  private  business  of  importance  had  brought  him  home 
to  Tennessee — to  that  home  which  in  his  absence  had  been  con- 
sumed by  the  devouring  flames — to  that  home,  where  laid  in- 
terred his  once  loved  and  much  calumniated  companion — to 
that  home,  wrhere  his  own  grave  had  been  opened,  with  strict 
injunction    that  no   matter   in  what  land  he  might  breathe  his 
last,  that  here,  beneath  the  sod  of  Tennessee,  so  often  protected 
by  his  valor,  and  identified  with  him  in  so  many  of  the  illustrious 
and  glorious  achievements  of  his  life,  his  mortal  remains  should 
be  deposited.     But  to  such  a  home,  so  endeared,  and  to  such  a 
State,  so  honored,  he  is  not  permitted  to  come  without  his  mo- 
tives and  purposes  being  slandered  and  misrepresented !     We 
cannot  take  time  to  enumerate  all  that  has  been  said.     Suffice 
it  to  say,  that  it  is  charged  upon  him,  in  passing  through  some 
of  the  congressional  districts,  he  spoke  unfavorably  of  their 
representatives  in  Congress.     We  have  no  doubt  that  he  did, 
and  have  as  little  doubt  that  he  ought  to  have  done  so.     Shall 
members  of  Congress,  on  the  floor  of  debate,  or  amongst  their 
constituents  denounce  Andrew  Jackson  as  a  tyrant  and  dicta- 
tor— as  an  elective  monarch  and  a  conspirator  against  public 
liberty,  and  then  complain  that  Andrew  Jackson  has  the  spirit 
and  the   nerve  to  fling  back  the  tide  of  reproach  upon  them- 
selves?    No  man  at  all  acquainted  with  his  character  ever  ex- 
pected the  contrary.     But  it  is  said  that  on  certain  occasions  he 
has  denounced  Judge  White !     And   has  not  Judge  White  as 
often  denounced  Gen.  Jackson?     If  the  latter  ever  said  of  the 
former,  that  he  was  leagued  with  the  Federalists,  has  not  Judge 
Wliite  insinuated  that   Jackson  was  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing 
and  a  conspirator  against  the  liberty  of  the  people?     W^e  do 
not  pretend  to  adjust  the  account  nor  strike  the  balance  on  the 
score  of  hard  words,  between  these  distinguished  individuals,  for 
we  have  not  the  information  enabling  us  to  be  precise  as  to  what 
they  have  said,  or  which  resorted  first  to  the  use  of  opprobrious 
epithets.     But  we  assure  you,  fellow-citizens,  from  what  we  have 


AN  ADDRESS. 


4G3 


heard  and  from  what  we  know  of  the  equally  irascible  temper  of 
both,  that  honors  are  very  likely  to  be  easy  on  that  score. 

We  submit  no  apology  to  the  community,  for  this  frequency 
of  reference  to  Gen.  Jackson — to  his  principles  and  measures, 
and  to  the  gross  and  frequent  injustice  that  has  been  done  to 
him  by  the  various  factions  now  composing  the  opposition  to 
his  administration.  The  last  victory  of  Democracy  was 
achieved  in  his  person,  and  the  Republican  party  stood  united 
and  concentrated  on  him  when  Judge  White,  Gen.  Harrison, 
and  Mr.  Webster  took  the  field  as  Presidential  candidates. 
No  one  of  them,  nor  all  combined,  have  any  chance  of  suc- 
cess, but  by  effecting  divisions  and  schisms  in  our  ranks.  This 
can  never  be  done  so  effectually  as  by  destroying  the  great 
and  deserved  popularity  of  Gen.  Jackson  with  the  Republican 
party.  That  being  accomplished,  his  measures  and  principles 
of  policy  fall  with  him,  and  with  their  overthrow,  Mr.  Van 
Buren's  must  follow  of  course.  Hence  it  is,  that  in  every  at- 
tack the  opposition  have  closely  identified  Gen.  Jackson 
with  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  thus  rendered  the  defence  of  the  one 
essentially  the  vindication  of  the  other. 

We  now  wish  to  bring  this  address  to  a  close.  In  mak- 
ing this  appeal,  we  have  nothing  to  accomplish  but  what 
we  sincerely  believe  is  equally  desired  by  a  vast  number  of  the 
friends  of  Judge  White,  tow  it :  the  preservation  of  the  sound 
principles  of  our  government.  We  are  solemnly  convinced, 
that  such  preservation  requires  us  forthwith  to  give  up  the  sup- 
port of  Judge  White,  and  to  unite  with  our  Republican  brethren 
of  other  States  in  the  support  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  thereby 
enable  the  people  to  make  choice  of  the  next  President,  instead 
of  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  this,  we  know  a  large 
portion  of  our  fellow-citizens  may  differ  from  us  in  opinion. 
We,  therefore,  earnestly  desire  your  attention  to  another  view 
of  the  Presidential  subject,  which  we  believe  you  ought  to 
take.  If  you  are  determined  to  cast  the  vote  of  Tennessee  to 
Judge  White,  and  to  risk  the  consequences  which  we  have  at- 
tempted to  portray,  what  course  do  you  intend  to  take  when, 
after  all  your  exertions,  he  may  have  to  be  surrendered  ?  If 
no  election  is  made  by  the  people,  and  the  candidates  shall  go 
before  the  House,  and  if  Judge  White  (being  one  of  them)  shall 
31 


464  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

be  unable  to  succeed,  who,  then,  shall  be  supported  by  the 
members  of  Congress  from  this  State  ?  A  majority  of  them,  it 
is  known,  will  vote  for  Judge  White  ;  but,  he  being  dropped, 
who  will  they  support  afterward?  You  have  made  known  to 
them  your  wishes  as  to  Judge  White,  but  as  yet  you  have  told 
them  nothing  of  your  second  choice.  We  think  we  hazard 
nothing,  when  we  say,  that  it  is  now  as  certain  that  Mr.  Van 
Buren  is  the  second  choice  of  Tennessee,  as  it  has  ever  been 
that  Judge  White  was  her  first  choice ;  and  yet  we  have  the 
most  awful  forebodings  that,  in  the  contest  between  Mr.  Van 
Buren  and  Gen.  Harrison,  or  Mr.  Webster,  that  a  majority  of 
our  present  members  of  Congress  would  vote  for  either  of  the 
two  latter  against  Mr.  Van  Buren.  We,  therefore,  most  ear- 
nestly appeal  to  the  friends  of  Judge  White,  to  make  known 
their  wishes  on  this  point  to  our  Representatives  in  Congress- 
Convene  in  the  same  manner,  and  make  known  to  them  your 
second  in  the  same  manner  as  you  did  your  first  choice.  We 
implore  you  not  to  slight  nor  neglect  our  admonitions  on  this 
point.  We  do  believe  that,  in  all  probability,  the  next  election 
is  destined  to  be  decided  by  the  House.  When  it  shall  have 
gone  there,  after  a  few  ballotings,  it  will  be  found  necessary  to 
drop  Judge  White  ;  and,  when  that  is  done,  we  do  greatly  fear 
that  the  vote  of  Tennessee  may  be  made  to  turn  the  scale  in 
favor  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  Federal  candidates.  The  mo- 
ment that  is  done,  what  must  be  the  remorse  of  Tennessee  for 
having  given  up  her  power  and  her  rights  to  a  few  members  of 
Congress,  to  barter  away  her  principles,  and  plunge  her  into 
associations  which,  in  her  heart,  she  detests  and  abhors.  To 
avoid  such  evils,  our  first  advice  is,  not  to  let  this  election  go  to 
the  House  at  all — not  to  place  the  destiny  of  a  great  and 
brave  people  into  the  hands  of  your  members  of  Congress — to 
keep  that  destiny,  under  the  providence  of  God,  in  your  own 
hands,  by  electing  that  one  of  the  Republican  candidates  who 
can,  in  the  first  instance,  with  your  assistance,  be  elected  by  the 
people.  This  is  the  voice  of  reason  and  safety,  echoed  back  by 
the  soundest  Republican  maxims.  But,  if  you  will  not  do  this, 
our  second  advice  is,  that  you  make  known  to  your  Represen- 
tatives that,  however  warmly  they  sustain  Judge  White,  both  in 
and  out  of  the  House,  yet  when  the  hour  shall  come  that  their 


AN  ADDRESS. 


465 


attachment  can  no  longer  be  serviceable  to  him,  that  they  must 
instantly  fly  to  the  support  of  the  other  Republican  candidate, 
and  in  no  event  vote  for  a  Federal  one.  By  pursuing  such  a 
course,  if  you  do  not  gain  the  credit  of  following  the  dictates 
of  the  highest  wisdom,  you  at  least  avoid  the  perpetration  of 
the  greatest  folly  and  mischief  to  your  country. 

We  intend  to  commit  no  trespass  on  your  patience,  in  pro- 
nouncing an  eulogium  on  Martin  Van  Buren.  Our  opinions  of 
him  have  been  frequently  stated  throughout  this  address  on  the 
great  questions  now  involved  in  the  politics  of  this  country. 
His  private  life  is  above  reproach,  and  his  public  career  is 
written  on  the  proudest  pages  of  our  Republican  history.  He 
received  the  vote  of  HughLawson  White  as  Secretary  of  State, 
as  Minister  to  England,  and  as  Vice  President  of  this  greatRe- 
public.  Slander  has  often  assailed,  but  truth  and  honor  have 
ever  sustained  him  in  the  most  trying  conflicts  through  which 
his  devotion  to  the  Democracy  of  the  country  ever  required 
him  to  pass.  Throughout  this  whole  contest,  biiter  and  severe 
as  it  has  been,  he  has  borne  himself  with  a  dignity  and  equa- 
nimity of  temper,  which  must  ever  command  the  admiration  of 
the  intelligent  and  liberal  of  all  parties. 

Robert  A.  Hewitt, 
Henry  W.  Williams. 
Corner  smile  Committee. 
Simeon  Marsh, 
John  B.  Rodgers, 
William  James,  St., 
R.  W.  Robinson, 
Joseph  Nance, 
Woodson  Walker, 
Henry  Wineow. 


Pulaski  Committee. 

A.  V.  Brown, 
A.  Flournoy, 
Thos.  P.  Adams, 
W.  F.  Mason, 
James  Paine, 
G.  A.  Gloover  i 
W.  R.  Brown, 
James  Buford, 
Jesse  Abernathy, 
Thomas  Martin, 
Wm.  C.  Flournoy. 
Campbells  utile  Committee. 
Lewis  Parker, 
Samuel  Faries, 
James  P.  Deanes, 


Elkton  Committee. 
R.  B.  Harny, 
Jno.  A.  Austin, 
D.  H.  Abernathy, 
L.  G.  Upshaw, 
Joseph  Goode. 


LETTER  OF  AARON  V.  BROWN, 

To  his  Constituents  of  the  Tenth  Congressional  District  of  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  September,  1842. 


Gentlemen  :  Never,  in  the  course  of  many  years  of  public 
life,  have  I  so  much  desired  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  a  gen- 
erous and  noble-hearted  constituency,  to  see  you  face  to  face, 
and  to  commune  freely  with  you  on  the  present  state  of  our 
public  affairs.  But  I  find  that  I  can  have  no  such  high  gratifi- 
cation. Those  who  now  rule  the  destinies  of  this  country,  seem 
to  have  resolved  that  the  sovereign  remedy  for  existing  evils  is 
perpetual  legislation — so  nearly  perpetual,  that  they  do  not 
ieave,  between  one  session  and  another,  sufficient  time  to  the 
Representative  (if  he  attend  at  all  to  his  private  concerns)  to 
return  to  his  district,  and  inhale  fresh  inspirations  of  wisdom 
and  virtue  from  his  constituency.  The  perplexing  question  is 
often  asked,  what  the  people  of  this  country  have  gained  by 
the  Whig  triumphs  of  1840  ?  Whatever  of  difficulty  the  domi- 
nant party  may  find  in  answering  this  question,  one  thing  is 
certain,  that  they  have  kept  Congress  so  long  in  session,  that 
every  one  of  them  who  are  members  of  it,  have  been  able 
to  draw  from  the  public  treasury  at  the  rate  of  eight  dol- 
lars per  day  for  every  day  since  the  4th  of  March,  1841.  This 
certainly  is  something  to  them,  whatever  it  may  be  to  the  people. 
Never,  in  the  annals  of  any  country,  so  far  as  legislation  was 
concerned,  did  a  party  have  so  full  and  so  fair  a  chance  to 
accomplish  some  great  and  striking  advancement  of  the  public 


JL  LETTER.  467 

good.  They  came  into  power  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841, 
flushed  with  victory,  and  proudly  boasting  of  an  immense  ma- 
jority in  both  branches  of  the  National  Legislature.  They 
elected  their  own  presiding  officers — appointed  their  own  com- 
mittees. They  decreed  in  caucus  what  particular  subjects 
should  be  acted  on,  and  what  should  be  excluded.  They  estab- 
lished their  own  rules,  breaking  down  all  the  ancient  safeguards 
of  legislation.  They  suppressed  everything  like  freedom  of 
debate,  by  placing  the  infamous  gag  on  their  opponents, 
thereby  silencing  all  opposition  to  their  proceedings.  In  fine, 
they  did  what  they  pleased,  when  they  pleased,  and  as  they 
pleased.  I  do  not  mean  at  this  point  to  discuss  the  measures  of 
the  called  session  :  that  belongs  to  another  part  of  my  letter. 
I  am  now  dealing  with  narrative,  not  with  commentary. 

During  the  early  portion  of  their  career,  all  was  peace  and 
harmony  in  their  party.  I  mean  all  that  met,  or  was  intended 
"  to  meet  the  public  eye,"  was  such.  At  length,  however,  the 
foul  demon  of  discord  appeared  amongst  their  ranks.  I  say 
appeared,  for  I  do  not  doubt  he  had  always  been  there.  How 
could  any  man  doubt  it?  Their  unnatural  combinations,  their 
strange  and  contemptible  devices,  and  all  the  vile  and  corrupt- 
ing means  by  which  they  achieved  their  victory,  clearly  show 
that  they  were  "  possessed  of  a  demon"  from  the  beginning. 
In  overthrowing  the  sub-treasury,  and  undoing,  in  hot  and 
inconsiderate  haste,  many  things  which  had  been  done  by 
Jackson  and  Van  Buren,  all  were  perfectly  united.  Mr.  Clay 
in  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  Adams  in  the  House,  actuated  by  all 
the  feelings  of  revenge  which  frequent  discomfiture  could  in- 
spire, led  on  in  this  inglorious  work  of  destruction.  But  when 
they  came  to  build  up  for  themselves  and  their  party  those 
institutions  and  measures  which  were  to  be  substituted  for  those 
which  they  had  destroyed,  all  became  discord  and  confusion. 
Mr.  Clay  wanted  a  bank  for  individual  speculation.  President 
Tyler  would  have  none  which  was  not  purely  national  and 
public  in  its  functions,  and  strictly  guarded  against  local  dis- 
counts. The  former  looking  more  to  the  interest  of  his  parti- 
sans, the  latter  to  that  of  the  nation,  their  differences  became 
irreconcilable.  The  consequence  was,  the  two  vetoes  on  both 
the  bank  bills.     The  President  stood  on  his  conscience  and  the 


468  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

Constitution ;  Mr.  Clay  on  his  bank  ;  whilst  the  cabinet,  (ex- 
cept Mr.  Webster,)  thinking,  no  doubt,  that  it  was  all  nonsense 
to  be  talking  about  conscience  and  the  Constitution  at  such  a 
party  crisis  as  that,  suddenly  threw  up  their  commissions,  and 
retired  from  the  public  service.  At  this  trying  period  in  their 
history,  some  few  of  the  Whig  party  conducted  themselves  with 
a  show  of  reasonable  moderation.  They  seemed  to  have  some 
respect  for  the  sacred  obligations  of  the  President's  oath  ;  and 
however  much  they  differed  with  him  in  opinion,  in  his  construc- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  they  could  not  censure  that  regard  for 
moral  obligation  which  the  President  had  so  fully  evinced  on  the 
occasion.  But  the  Clay  portion  of  the  party  scoffed  at  all  this, 
as  hypocritical  and  idle.  They  denounced  him  as  a  traitor  ;  the 
vile  wretch  at  the  other  end  of  the  avenue  ;  the  perjured  miscre- 
ant ;  besides  many  other  terms  of  wanton  and  unmerited  re- 
proach. The  great  dictator  to  his  party,  and  the  would-have- 
been  dictator  to  John  Tyler,  raved  and  roared  like  a  lion  deprived 
of  his  prey.  In  his  rage  and  fury,  he  seized  on  the  great  con- 
servative power  of  the  Constitutton,  and  vainly  endeavored  to 
tear  it  out  from  that  consecrated  instrument.  I  say  vainly  en- 
deavored, although  this  war  on  the  veto  power  is  not  yet  termi- 
nated :  it  is  yet  raging  ;  and  we  have  witnessed,  at  the  present 
session,  the  strange  and  appalling  spectacle  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  the 
Senate,  endeavoring  to  pull  down  this,  the  noblest  pillar  in  the 
Constitution  ;  whilst  Mr.  Adams,  in  the  House,  was  taking  the 
most  effectual  means  to  overthrow  the  whole  Constitution  and 
the  Union  together. 

Such  was  the  actual  condition  of  the  Whig  party  at  the 
close  of  the  ever-memorable  called  session  of  1841.  I  speak 
710/  yet  of  their  measures — their  tendency  to  prostrate  all  the 
best  interests  of  the  country — nor  of  the  highly  censurable, 
not  to  say  flagitious,  means  by  which  they  were  carried  through 
Congress.  I  have  another  time  and  place  for  all  this.  My 
purpose  is  next  to  call  your  attention  to  the  extraordinary  con- 
dition of  parties  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  ses- 
sion of  Congress — the  regular  one  under  the  Constitution. 
Warned  by  their  failure  to  do  anything  valuable  or  useful  to 
the  country  at  the  preceding  session,  and  alarmed  at  the  indig- 
nant murmurs  of  the  people,  the  Clay  portion  of  the  Whig 


A   LETTER,  '  469 

party,  at  the  very  earliest  moment,  declared  that  they  would 
no  longer  be  responsible  for  the  management  of  public  affairs. 
The  President,  they  said,  had  separated  himself  from  them ; 
and,  as  he  had  set  up  to  have  both  a  conscience  and  a  judgment 
of  his  own,  upon  him  should  rest  the  responsibility  of  admin- 
istering the  government.  Now,  it  was  known  that,  although 
the  President  was  a  Whig — that  every  member  of  his  cabinet 
was  a  Whig — and  that  he  had  a  brave  and  gallant  little  band 
of  Whig  friends  in  the  House — yet  it  was  evidently  impossible 
for  him  to  meet  this  new  responsibility,  without  a  new  organi- 
zation of  at  least  the  House  of  Representatives.  Did  the  Clay 
Whigs  give  the  Tyler  Whigs  (as  they  should  have  done)  the 
ability  and  means  of  meeting  this  responsibility,  thus  suddenly 
thrown  upon  them  ?  As  a  member  of  the  Democratic  party — 
belonging  to  neither,  but  determined  to  go  with  either,  as  far 
as  I  could  consistently  with  my  principles,  in  advancing  the 
welfare  of  the  country — I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  did 
not.  From  time  immemorial  it  has  been  customary  to  give  the 
Administration  in  being,  the  Speaker  and  the  standing  com- 
mittees of  the  House,  in  order  to  give  it  a  fair  opportunity  to 
bring  forward  and  fully  present  its  measures  to  the  nation — a 
practice  no  less  sanctioned  by  the  principles  of  liberality  and 
justice,  than  by  immemorial  usage.  The  President  had  vetoed, 
and,  pro  tanto,  had  rejected  Mr.  Clay's  views  and  projects  in 
relation  to  banks  and  the  currency — the  great  questions  of  the 
times — on  which,  as  it  was  alleged,  all  the  relief  of  the  people 
from  pecuniary  embarrassment  depended.  In  consequence  of 
which,  his  quondam  friends  were  now  declaring  that  all  respon- 
sibility should  be  on  him,  and  not  on  them.  Was  it,  then, 
anything  but  fair  that  he  should  have  a  fall  opportunity  to  pre- 
sent His  own  views  and  projects  on  these  and  other  all-important 
subjects  ?  But  how  did  the  case  stand  at  the  beginning,  and 
throughout  the  whole  period  of  this  nine  months'  session  ? 
How  was  it  with  the  Speaker?  When  elected,  he  was,  but 
now  he  is  no  friend  of  the  Administration  ;  but  the  warm  and 
bosom  friend  of  its  greatest  enemy.  Yet  he  would  not  resign  ; 
he  would  not  generously  relax  his  grasp  on  that  high  office, 
which  the  party,  in  the  days  of  its  unity,  had  conferred  upon 
him.     No  ;  he  held  to  it  with  all  the  tenacity  which  hostility  to 


470  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  Executive,  or  devotion  to  the  Dictator,  could  inspire. 
What  a  vantage  ground  it  proved  to  be,  when  he  came  to  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  others  like  him,  (if  he  can 
have  likenesses,)  on  the  special  committee  on  the  veto  message 
of  the  President  on  the  tariff  bill !  I  speak  all  this  in  no  spirit 
of  unkindness  to  the  Speaker,  but  with  that  impartiality  which 
belongs  to  the  history  of  this  extraordinary  session. 

But  how  was  it  with  the  committees,  far  more  important  than 
the  Speaker  ?  How  was  it  with  the  chairman  of  the  Ways  and 
Means,  [Mr.  Fillmore,]  always  regarded,  here  and  everywhere, 
as  the  organ  and  confidential  friend  of  the  Administration? 
W7ould  he  resign  ?  No  ;  not  he.  He  had  acquired  a  command 
over  the  business  of  the  House,  over  the  treasury,  and  over  the 
very  salaries  of  the  President  and  all  in  authority  under  him, 
which  he  would  never  relinquish.  How  was  it  with  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs?  Would  that  chairman,  [Mr. 
Adams]  resign?  No.  The  Georgia  petition  (which  he  pre- 
sented himself)  asking  him  to  resign,  for  being  monomaniacal 
on  the  subject  of  slavery — which,  in  the  case  of  the  Cre- 
ole and  others,  might  come  before  him — could  not  move  him. 
The  unwillingness  of  three — nay,  of  six — honorable  gentlemen 
to  serve  under  him,  could  not  move  him.  Even  after  the  pre- 
sentation by  him  of  a  petition  for  the  dissolution  of  this  great 
and  glorious  Union,  there  was  no  power  of  the  House  (out  of 
his  own  party)  which  could  have  moved  him.  There  he  re- 
mained, holding  the  command  of  the  foreign  policy  of  this  gov- 
,  ernment,  a  bitter  and  confirmed  enemy  to  the  Administration, 
and  an  immense  debtor  to  the  Dictator  for  the  highest  station 
which  he  ever  filled.  I  could  not  look  upon  all  this  without  re- 
membering what  I  had  said  of  these  two  (then  and  now)  dis- 
tinguished individuals,  fifteen  years  ago,  in  the  Legislature  of 
Tennessee:  "Mr.  Adams  desired  the  office  of  President :  he 
went  into  the  combination  without  it,  and  came  out  with  it. 
Mr.  Clay  desired  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  :  he  went  into 
the  combination  without  it,  and  came  out  with  it." 

I  will  mention  but  one  other  committee  of  the  House,  whose 
chairman  [Mr.  Stanly]  is  remarkable  for  his  violent  opposition 
to  the  President.  This  is  the  committee  over  which  our  most 
distinguished  generals — coming  up  from  the  battle-fields  of  the 


A  LETTER,  471 

Revolution,  or  of  the  second  war  for  independence — have 
usually  presided.  Would  any  of  these  have  been  proud  to 
continue  to  be  the  sword  bearer  to  a  President,  after  they  had 
denounced  him  as  weak,  corrupt,  and  infamous  ? 

But  I  mean  to  dwell  no  longer  on  this  descriptio  personce  of 
the  officials  of  the  Clay  party  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. I  have  said  enough  to  show  you  that  the  sword,  the 
purse,  and  the  foreign  policy  of  thi3  country,  have  all  been 
taken  away  from  the  President,  and  given  up  to  his  enemies. 
And  yet  they  came  forward  and  said  that  he  must  be  respon- 
sible for  everything,  and  they  responsible  for  nothing  ! 

During  all  the  period  of  discord  and  the  final  disruption  of 
the  Whig  party,  the  Democrats  remained  quiet  and  dispas- 
sionate spectators.  They  regarded  it,  throughout,  as  a  sort  of 
family  quarrel,  with  which  it  were  alike  indelicate  and  impru- 
dent to  interfere.  They  had  differed  with  the  President  in  opi- 
nion on  almost  every  leading  measure  of  his  recommendation 
or  final  adoption — his  veto  message  on  the  bank  bills  only  ex- 
cepted. They  had  looked  upon  these  as  noble  acts  of  self- 
devotion  and  patriotism,  which  might  well  challenge  the  grati- 
tude and  admiration  of  the  country.  When,  at  the  late  ses- 
sion, we  found  ourselves  constrained  to  bestow  the  like  com- 
mendations on  him  for  his  veto  on  the  tariff  bill,  we  were 
openly  denounced  as  having  seduced  the  President,  and  formed 
a  corrupt  bargain  and  coalition  with  him — a  charge  preferred 
without  proof,  and  against  proof.  My  colleague  of  the  David- 
son district,  on  that  occaiion,  ventured  far  out  into  the  unex- 
plored regions  of  unfounded  accusation  ;  but  took  good  care  to 
secure  his  safe  return,  behind  the  ignoble  protection  of  the  pre- 
vious question.  That  gentleman  should  have  been  amongst 
the  last  men  in  Congress  to  have  repeated  a  charge  which,  he 
must  have  known,  had  its  origin  only  in  the  chagrin  and  pas- 
sion which  prompted  its  utterance.  He  was  long  enough  a 
member  of  the  old  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  Democratic  party 
to  know  that  it  never  stooped  "  to  bargain,  corruption,  and  in- 
trigue," for  the  accomplishment  of  any  of  its  high  and  patriotic 
purposes.  Those  are  the  weapons  of  his  new  allies,  (Clay  and 
Adams,)  to  whose  standard  he  has  fled,  and  whose  cause  he  is 
now  seeking  to  advance  with  so  much  ardor  and  zeal.   If  pledged 


472  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

(as  I  believe  he  was)  to  demand  the  previous  question,  he 
should  have  forborne  to  make  such  an  attack  on  the  Democracy 
of  the  House,  when  he  knew  that  he  intended  to  give  them  no 
opportunity  to  repel  and  defend.  The  previous  question  has 
been  the  fortress  to  which  that  gentleman  and  his  party  friends 
have  often  fled  for  shelter  and  protection.  Witness  the  recent 
case  of  the  President's  protest,  when  they  held  fast  their  vic- 
tim, giving  to  the  most  fierce  and  savage  of  their  party  a  full 
opportunity  to  lacerate  and  tear  his  flesh  ;  and  then,  when  the 
hour  of  retribution  arrived,  bore  off  the  executioner  to  that 
great  Whig  city  of  refuge — the  previous  question. 

But  it  is  probably  time  that  I  should  leave  this  running  nar- 
rative. I  have  intended  it  as  a  general  outline  of  party  move- 
ments, essential  to  the  proper  understanding  of  those  obnoxious 
and  ruinous  measures  which  the  Whig  party  have  passed,  or 
attempted  to  pass,  since  their  advent  to  power.  What  have 
been 

THE    MEASURES    OF    THE    WHIG    PARTY? 

I  do  not  mean  to  give  you  any  long,  prosing  enumeration  of 
them,  nor  of  the  arguments  for  and  against  them.  Nor  do  I  mean 
to  make  any  classification  of  them,  as  to  the  called  or  regular 
sessions.  I  consider  both  sessions  in  the  same  light — both  as 
exhibiting  the  most  wretched  disregard  of  the  most  solemn 
promises  made  to  the  people  anterior  to  their  election.  Amongst 
others,  the  promise  of  relief  was  the  most  prominent.  Mr. 
Clay  did  not  hesitate  to  proclaim,  that  the  mere  fact  of  the 
election  of  Gen.  Harrison  would  raise  the  price  of  property  in 
every  portion  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Crittenden  [his  then  col- 
league, and  now  successor  in  the  Senate,]  declared  that,  in  his 
opinion,  it  would  add  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  of  capital 
to  the  country.  All  the  Whig  electors,  and  other  itinerant 
orators  of  1840,  expressed  similar  opinions,  and  uttered  the 
same  false  and  deceitful  prophecy.  It  deceived  hundreds  and 
thousands  in  that  election.  When  reminded  of  all  this  at  the 
called  session,  the  evasive  reply  was,"  True;  but  we  cannot 
do  everything  at  once.  Wait  but  another  year,  and  you  will 
see  the  glorious  realization  of  all  our  promises."  Well,  the 
country  has  waited,  until  thousands,  who  expected  relief  from 
them,  have   become   hopeless  bankrupts.     Property  of  every 


A   LETTER.  473 

description  has  gone  down.  Produce — cotton,  rice,  tobacco, 
wheat,  and,  indeed,  everything— has  fallen  to  a  price  not  re- 
membered by  our  oldest  inhabitants,  What  was  but  a  fleeting 
shadow  of  adversity  in  1840,  has  now  settled  down  into  the 
dark  midnight  of  ruin,  and  almost  of  despair.  And  what  are 
we  told  now  ?  Why, "  Take  the  benefit  of  the  bankrupt  law." 
"Swear  off  all  your  debts."  And  then  "foreswear  Captain 
Tyler  and  the  veto  power  of  the  Constitution  forever."  In  all 
the  gravity  which  this  distressing  subject  is  calculated  to  in- 
spire, may  we  not  now  ask — may  not  the  people  throughout 
all  this  broad  land  now  ask — "  Is  this  the  entertainment  to 
which  we  were  invited  ?  " 

Of  this  bankrupt  law,  (the  only  measure  of  relief  to  which 
the  Whigs  can  point,)  I  have  but  little  to  say.  It  was  a  favorite 
measure  of  Mr.  Clay,  not  among  the  subjects  mentioned  in  the 
President's  message,  but  was  forced  on  the  list  of  subjects  to  be 
acted  on,  by  the  overshadowing  influence  of  that  individual. 
It  passed  by  a  vote  of  111  to  105 — every  Democrat  in  the 
House,  except  3,  and  every  one  in  the  Senate,  except  4,  voting 
against  it,  and  disputing  every  inch  of  the  ground.  Every 
Whig  member  from  Tennessee  voted  for  it,  except  Mr.  Wm. 
B.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Gentry.  Mr.  Milton  Brown  flushed  his 
maiden  sword  in  debate  upon  it.  General  Caruthers  threw 
round  it  all  the  stately  blandishments  of  his  approbation.  The 
three  gentlemen  from  East  Tennessee  gave  a  clear  and  hearty 
affirmative  to  the  call  of  the  clerk,  evincing  the  delight  which 
the  opportunity  to  give  such  a  vote  had  evidently  inspired. 
iTou  may  judge,  then,  fellow-citizens,  my  surprise,  on  seeing  it 
often  stated  in  the  public  press  of  Tennessee,  that  not  a  single 
distinguished  W^hig  in  the  State  was  in  favor  of  the  bankrupt 
bill.  All  these  gentlemen  are  quite  distinguished,  as  they  de- 
serve to  be,  and  can  hardly  be  flattered  by  such  an  unjust  party 
pretermission.  But  the  object,  no  doubt,  was  to  screen  another 
"  distinguished  citizen "  of  the  State  from  the  imputation  of 
being  in  favor  of  the  bankrupt  law,  inferred  from  his  inveterate 
silence  when  interrogated  on  the  subject ;  and  for  this  purpose, 
Messrs.  Caruthers,  Brown,  J.  L.  Williams,  C.  H.  Williams,  Jef- 
ferson Campbell,  and  last,  though  not  least,  in  the  way  of  dis- 
tinction, Thomas  D.  Arnold,  were  to  be  all  rapped  over  the 
knuckles  for  his  benefit. 


* 


474  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

The  next  subject  of  their  legislation  which  I  wish  briefly  to 
notice,  is — 

THE    BILL     FOR     THE     DISTRIBUTION     OF    THE    PROCEEDS   OF  THE    PUBLIC 

LANDS. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  learn  from  them  whether  this  was 
one  of  their  measures  of  relief  to  the  people,  or  not.  They  have 
found  it  very  hard  to  show  how  it  can  be  a  relief  to  a  man  from 
pecuniary  embarrassment,  to  take  his  own  money  out  one  of  his 
pockets,  and  put  it  into  another — taking  a  part  of  the  money 
as  commission  for  performing  the  operation.  Now,  if  you 
would  give  him  more  of  somebody  else's  money,  you  might  talk 
to  him  about  the  additional  help  and  relief  it  might  be  in  the 
payment  of  his  debts ;  but  to  shift  his  own  money  from  one 
pocket  to  another,  and  then  tell  him  how  much  better  off  he 
has  become  than  he  was  before,  is  a  sort  of  charlatanism  easiy 
exposed.  The  people  of  this  country  have  two  sets  of  treasu- 
ries— the  National  and  State.  These  must  both  be  kept  sup- 
plied— the  one  for  general  or  national  purposes,  the  other  to 
meet  their  local  demands.  Now,  it  is  evident  that,  in  times  of 
scarcity,  when  both  are  insufficient  to  meet  the  proper  calls  on 
them,  it  can  be  no  relief  to  take  out  of  one  and  put  in  the  other; 
because  you  must  instantly  turn  round  and  fill  up  the  vacancy 
which  your  false  and  deceptive  financiering  had  created.  Nor 
have  I  ever  met  with  one  Whig  so  shrewd  as  to  be  able  to  avoid 
the  just  application  of  that  homely  aphorism,  that  it  is  always 
wrong  "  to  rob  Peter  to  pay  Paul" — to  rob  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  pay  the  States.  But  this  case  of  distribution  is  much 
worse  than  that.  It  is  robbing  Peter  to  pay  Peter,  and  then 
insulting  him  by  the  assurance  that  you  have  made  him  much 
richer  by  the  operation.  But  I  will  not  enlarge  on  this,  because 
I  have  always  believed  that  the  main  design  and  purpose  of 
giving  (zway  this  fund  was  to  have  a  plausible  excuse  for  the 
passage  of  a  higher  and  more  oppressive  tariff  for  the  protec- 
tion of  Northern  manufacturers.  A  few  Southern  Whigs  com- 
muning with  them  in  their  midnight  caucuses,  and  thereby 
learning  more  of  their  ultimate  designs,  positively  refused  to  go 
for  the  bill,  until  there  was  an  express  provision  for  its  repeal 
whenever  the  rate  of  duties  should  be  raised  above  twenty 
percent — that  being  the  rate  of  the  compromise  act  of  1833. 


A  LETTER.  475 

Here  commenced  a  system  of  legislation  that  can  never  reflect 
credit  on  the  Congress  or  party  which  enacted  the  distribution 
and  the  bankrupt  laws.  If  the  tendencies  of  both  laws  were 
injurious,  the  mode  and  circumstances  of  the  passage  were  • 
flagitious.  The  latter  bill  was  rejected  on  one  day,  by  nearly 
a  dozen  votes.  On  the  night  of  that  same  day  a  caucus  was 
held,  in  which  the  importance  of  that  bill,  in  a  party  point  of 
view,  and  the  dependence  of  the  distribution  bill  upon  it,  were 
explained  and  insisted  on.  The  result  was,  that  next  morning 
the  vote  of  rejection  was  reconsidered,  and  the  vote  passed  by 
a  majority  nearly  as  large  as  the  one  by  which  it  was  rejected 
on  the  day  before.  Some  dodged,  others  got  sick,  whilst  several 
reversed  their  recorded  votes  of  the  preceding  day.  The  distri- 
bution law,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  hanging  in  the  Senate 
in  a  state  of  suspended  animation.  The  vote  rejecting  the 
bankrupt  bill  was  considered  as  having  sealed  its  fate;  and 
the  whole  party,  in  a  wretched  state  of  despondence,  were  pre- 
paring to  break  up  the  session,  and  go  home,  having  failed 
in  every  great  measure  which  they  had  attempted,  But  mark 
the  sudden  change !  The  moment  the  news  of  the  next  morn- 
ing arrived  in  the  Senate  chamber,  that  the  bankrupt  bill  had 
been  reconsidered,  and  passed,  the  countenance  of  the  great 
Dictator  and  his  friends  brightened  up ;  the  distribution  bill 
was  reanimated  and  passed — even  then  by  the  smallest  possi- 
ble majority.  How  sincerely  should  it  be  wished  that  the  eye 
of  a  virtuous  and  enlightened  posterity  should  never  rest  upon 
the  page  that  records  the  incidents  of  this  transaction. 

I  wish  next  to  call  your  attention  to  a  measure,  or  rather  a 
system  of  measures,  for  borrowing  money.  You  have  seldom 
been  able  to  look  over  the  public  newspapers,  without  finding 
something  about 

THE    LOAN  BILL, 

or,  in  plainer  language,  the  bill  to  increase  the  national  debt, 
by  borrowing  more  money.  The  frequency  of  such  bills,  the 
low  condition  of  our  finances,  and  the  difficulty  of  negotiating 
for  money  on  the  national  credit,  must  have  attracted  much  of 
your  attention.  That  our  treasury  is  in  an  exhausted  and  al- 
most bankrupt  condition,  is  not  to  be  denied ;  and  that  it  must 
continue  so,  in  a  great  degree,  for  some  time,  if  this  party  is 


476  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

to  be  continued  in  power,  I  think  is  equally  manifest.  What 
sort  of  a  treasury  would  satisfy  their  enormous  appropriations, 
or  meet  the  increased  and  accumulating  extravagance  of  their 
expenditures  ? 

In  1840  they  saw  Mr.  Van  Buren  expending  $22,389,350,  and 
pronounced  such  extravagance  alone  to  be  sufficient  for  his 
instant  expulsion  from  office.     They  contrasted  this  sum  with 
that  which  they  said  was  the  amount  of  Mr.  Adams's  adminis- 
tration, and  cried  "  Down  with  them  for  such  reckless  extrava- 
gance. "     Yet,  strange  to  tell,  the  very  first  year  that  they  came 
in,  they  actually  expended  $26,300,000— four  millions  and  odd 
more  than  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  expended.     They  do  not  pro- 
pose, for  any  future  year,  to  expend  less  than  twenty-six  or 
twenty-seven  millions  of  dollars.     All  the  great  oracles  have 
said  it,  and  published  it  to  the  nation.     Clay,  Evans,  Adams, 
Fillmore,  Saltonstall — all  agree  that  no  less  than  twenty-six 
or  twenty-seven  millions  of  dollars  will  do  for  them.     What  a 
commentary  on  their  professions  of  economy  and  retrenchment 
made  before  the  election.     I  have  watched  them  closely,  to  dis- 
cover by  what  new  devices  they  mean  to  endeavor  hereafter  to 
impose  on  you,  on  this  subject  of  retrenchment  and  reform. 
They  mean  to  point  you  to  one  or  two  clerks  ;  to  as  many 
little  orphan  pages  about  the  hall;  and  to  one  old  man,  his 
horse  and  cart,  that  they  turned  out  of  office  ;  but  nearly  all  of 
whom,  I  believe,  they  afterwards  turned  back  again.     They 
will  call  your  attention  also  to  the  contingent  expenses  struck 
out  of  the  general  appropriation  bill — amounting  in  all  to  a  very 
considerable  sum  of  money.     But  I  pray  of  you  to  demand  of 
them  to  show  the  separate  bill  for  the  same  contingent  expenses 
subsequently  reported  and  passed — swelling  and  increasing  the 
amount  far  beyond  what  it  was  before — inserting  new  clerks 
on  high  salaries,  and  rendered  so  extravagant  that  the  very 
gentleman  [Mr.  Gentry]  who  moved  in  the  matter,  and  whose 
motion  was  extravagantly  eulogised  in  the  Whig  papers  of 
Tennessee,  repudiated  the  bill  altogether,  and  denounced  the 
outrageous  extravagance  of  the  committee  (Whig,  of  course)  who 
had  reported  it.     You  must  remember,also,  what  great  parade 
was  made  over  the  supposed  discovery  that  three  or  four  clerks 
had  been  employed  without  the  regular  sanction  of  law.     But 


A   LETTER,  477 

their  supposed  discovery  soon  turned  out  to  be  no  discovery 
at  all.  Every  one  of  them  had  been  lawfully  appointed  and  paid 
annually  in  the  proper  appropriation  bills.  But  it  was  con- 
tended that,  although  that  might  make  them  lawful,  yet  it  would 
be  a  better  practice  to  have  them  appointed  by  a  separate  law 
disconnected  with  the  appropriation  bill.  This,  of  course, 
presented  a  mere  matter  of  expediency,  and  dissipated  into 
thinnest  air  the  attempt  to  criminate  preceding  Congresses  who 
thought  proper  to  appoint  them  by  a  different  mode  of  legisla- 
tion. There  is  another  device  which  you  may  look  out  to  be 
played  ofFupon  you,  as  an  excuse  for  spending  annually  upwards 
of  four  millions  more  than  was  expended  under  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
administration.  They  have  already  attempted  to  do  this,  even 
here  ;  and,  though  baffled  and  refuted  by  the  reports  of  their 
own  Secretary,  and  the  lucid  speeches  of  Messrs.  Woodbury, 
Benton,  Atherton,  Calhoun,  and  others,  they  will,  no  doubt, 
attempt  to  do  it  again.  The  pretence  is,  that  a  good  deal  of  this 
money,  (the  twenty  millions  authorized  to  be  loaned)  and  the 
large  expenses  estimated  for  the  four  years  of  their  administra- 
tion, is  needed  to  pay  off  a  large  public  debt  inherited  by 
them  from  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration.  So  much  had 
been  said  and  insinuated,  from  time  to  time,  on  the  subject, 
that,  on  the  23d  of  September  last,  the  Senate  adopted  a  reso- 
lution calling  on  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  report  the 
amount  of  the  public  debt  on  the  3d  of  March,  1841,  the  day 
when  Mr.  Van  Buren  went  out,  and  General  Harrison  went 
into  office.  That  account,  taken  from  the  records  of  their  own 
Secretary,  shows  the  debt  (which  they  say  they  inherited 
from  Mr.  Van  Buren)  to  have  been  only  $5,607,361  54.  This 
document  is  numbered  forty-one  on  the  files  of  the  Senate. 
Whenever  you  shall  hear  this  inherited  debt  presented  as  an 
excuse  for  these  vast  expenditures  now  going  on,  and  in  further 
contemplation,  put  an  end  to  all  mystification  on  the  subject  by 
requiring  the  production  of  this  document.  It  was  intended  to 
settle  this  question,  and  does  settle  it  forever. 

APPORTIONMENT    BILL ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    HOUSE. 

I  am  compelled  to  pass  over  altogether  many  subjects  of 
recent  legislation,  justly  deserving  the  most  pointed  rebuke  • 
such,  among  others,  are  the  bill  apportioning  representation 


478  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

among  the  States,  and  the  bill  regulating  proceedings  in  case  of 
contested  elections.     The  first  act  contains  a  dangerous  inva- 
sion on  the  rights  of  the  States,  which  I  resisted    at  every 
stage  of  its  progress,  whilst  there  was  any  hope  of  getting 
clear  of  the  obnoxious  provision,  mandatory  to  the  sovereign 
States  of  the  Union.     The  Democratic  party  resisted  that  pro- 
vision, from  the  time  it  was  offered,  and  sought  every  oppor- 
tunity afterwards    to  strike   it  from  the  bill ;    most  of  them, 
indeed,  finally  voted  against  the  bill  altogether,  rather  than 
submit  to  it.    Others,  believing  that  it  was  their  bounden  duty  to 
make  an  apportionment  under  the  Constitution,  and  that,  if  it 
were  not  done  it  might  threaten  a  consequence  little  short  of 
the  dissolution  of  the  government,  felt  themselves  bound  to 
yield  to  the  unrelenting  power  of  the  majority.     Upon  their 
heads  be  the  responsibility  of  forcing  this  provision  into  a  bill 
which  they  knew  was  obliged  to  be  passed  in  some  form  or  other. 
At  no  distant  day  will  they  feel  the  full  force  of  that  responsi- 
bility in  the  returning   surges  of  popular  indignation.     The 
second   bill  contained  provisions  in  relation  to  the    organiza- 
tion  of   the    House  at  the  commencement  of    each  session, 
and  conferring  powers  on  the   Clerk  to  determine  who  should 
be  regarded  and  qualified  as  the  lawful  members  of  the  body; 
utterly  inconsistent  with  that  clear,   and,  until    now,   never 
invaded  provision   of  the   Constitution,   which  declares  that 
*'  each  House  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections,  qualifications, 
and  returns  of  its  own  members."     It  was  evidently  a  strata- 
gem to  save  something  from  the  wreck  of  their  falling  fortunes. 
They  knew  at  the  time  the  law  requiring  elections  to  be  held 
by  districts  was  passed,  that  some  States  had  elected  their 
members  already,  or  would  do  so  before  the  news  would  reach 
them  of  the  passage  of  the  act.     They  knew,  also,  that  some 
States  were  so  attached,  from  ancient  usage,    to  the  general 
ticket  system,  that  they  would  most  probably  not  conform  to 
the  law  ;  and  then,  as  the  Clerk  who  would  have  to  officiate  as 
high  priest  for  the  party  at  the  opening  of  the  next  Congress, 
would  be  a  Whig,  they  hoped,  by  these  means,  to  get   some 
party  advantage,  which  might  save  them,  at  least  for  a  time, 
from  total  and  utter  discomfiture.     Vain  hope!  delusive  expec- 
tation !     No  breach  of  the  Constitution — no  invasion  of  the 


A  LETTER.  479 

rights  of  the  States — no  high  priest  to  .cheat  for  you  after  the 
election,  can  save  you  from  the  deep  condemnation  of  the  people 
at  the  election.  T  he  only  remaining  measure  of  the  late  session, 
which  the  limits  of  this  letter  will  allow  me  to  mention,  is 

THE    TARIFF. 

The  Bank  was  the  favorite  measure  with  the  Southern  Whigs  : 
the  tariff  with  the  Northern  ones.  The  first  had  been  lost  by 
the  veto  of  the  called  session  ;  and  the  second  was  involved  in 
much  difficulty  by  two  solemn  compromises,  limiting  its  amount 
to  twenty  per  cent.  The  first  compromise  was  in  1833,  in  order 
to  prevent  civil  war,  and  a  probable  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
The  North  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  it,  on  their  part,  ever  since ; 
and  now  the  time  was  coming  (30th  June,  1842)  when  the  South 
was  to  begin  to  enjoy  it  on  her  part.  It  has  often  been  ques- 
tioned whether  the  North  would  continue  to  adhere  to  this 
solemn  compact  or  not,  when  it  began  to  be  her  interest  to 
violate  it.  Hence  the  candidates  for  the  Presidency  in  1840 
were  often  questioned  on  the  subject,  because  the  South  could 
not  afford  to  vote  for  any  man  for  that  high  office  who  would 
withhold  from  it  her  part  of  the  bargain,  after  the  North,  for 
nearly  ten  years,  had  been  pocketing  millions  upon  millions 
under  it.  The  Southern  Whigs  obtained  the  solemn  promise 
of  General  Harrison  that  he  never  would  consent  to  set  aside 
or  violate  the  compromise  act  of  1833.  In  his  Zanesville  letter 
he  said  : 

41 1  am  for  supporting  the  compromise  act,  and  never  will  agree  to  its  being 
altered  or  repealed." 

In  reply  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  Berrien  of  Georgia,  he  said  : 
"  Good  faith,  and  thy  peace  and  harmony  of  the  Union,  do,  in  my  opinion, 
require  that  the  compromise  of  the  tariff,  known  as  Mr.  Clay's  bill,  should  be 
carried  out  according  to  its  spirit  and  intention." 

Well,  these  letters  were  published  ;  and  many  of  the  States, 
opposed  to  any  other  tariff  than  the  compromise,  voted  for 
Harrison  and  Tyler — the  latter  of  whom  every  one  knew  to  be 
so  much  of  an  anti-tariff  man  as  to  have  been  even  a  nullifler 
in  the  days  of  that  doctrine.  But  Harrison  was  dead  at  the 
time  of  the  called  session,  and  the  time  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing when  the  fidelity  of  the  North  would  be  brought  to  the 
test.  It  was,  therefore,  highly  important  to  the  South  to  get 
32 


480  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

some1  renewed  pledge   from  those  who  were  still  professing  to 
be  the  Harrison  party,  and  to  reverence  and  honor  his  princi- 
ples.    An  opportunity  occurred  on  the  passage  of  the  distri- 
bution bill.     It  was  said  often  in  argument  in  relation  to  that 
bill,  that,  if  the  land  money  was  given  away,  Congess  would  be 
obliged  to  raise  the  duties  above  twenty  per  cent.,  in  violation  of 
the  compromise,  in  order  to  have  money  enough  to  carry  on 
the  government.     This  roused  up  Southern  Senators  to  demand 
a  renewal  of  the  Harrison  pledge,  never  to  violate  the  terms  of 
the  compromise.     "Without  this  renewed  pledge,  they  declared 
that  they  could  not  and  would  not  vote  for  the   distribution. 
Thereupon,  the  Whig  party  in  the  Senate  did  give  the  pledge,  by 
introducing  the  proviso,  that  if,  at  any  time,  the  duties  should  be 
raised  above  twenty  per  cent.,  the  land  distribution  should  cease. 
They  sent  it  to  the  House  of  Repretentatives,  where  the  Whig 
party  of  that  body  signed,  scaled,  and  ratified  the  same  pledge. 
The  good  faith  of  the  North  to  the  observance  of  the  compro- 
mise having   been  thus  more  than  -doubly  secured^-secured 
by  the  pledge  of  Mr.  Clay,  that  no  honorable  man  deserving  the 
name  of  an  American  statesman,  wTould  ever  propose  its  viola- 
tion— secured  by  the  pledge  of  General  Harrison,  that  he  would 
never  consent  to  set  it  aside — secured  now,  in   1841,  by  the 
pledge  of  the  Whig  party  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  that  they 
did  not  intend  its  violation,  and  that,  if  they  ever  did,  they  would 
instantly  surrender  the  further  distribution  of  the  land  fund. 
With  such  assurances  as  these,  the  land  bill  received  the  sanc- 
tion and  signature  of  the  President.     Now,  under  all  these 
solemn  covenants,  compacts,  compromises,  or  whatever  else 
you  may  choose  to  call  them,  made  in  old  and  recent  times  by 
the  leaders  of  the  party,  and  by  the  party  itself,  what  ought  to 
have  been  done  by  them  in  relation  to  the  tariff  at  the  present 
session  ?     ECP  They  ought  to  have  enacted  only  a  few  obvious 
provisions  in  relation  to  the  mode  of  ascertaining  the  home  val- 
uation, and  of  carrying  into  effect  the  compromise  act  of  1833. 
This,  and  the  correction  of  some  errors  of  the  last  session  in 
regard  to  the  list  of  free  articles,  are,  in  my  opinion,  all  that 
honor,  justice  and  good  faith  allowed  them  to  have  done.    This 
could  have  been  done  in  a  few  weeks,  at  farthest;  half  of  this 
everlasting  session  could  have  been  saved,  and  all  the  parts  of 


A  LETTER.  481 

our  country,  now  excited  and  agitated  by  this  dangerous  and 
delicate  question,  could  have  been  reposing  in  confidence  and 
affection  under  the  equal  and  benign  protection  of  the  Consti- 
tution. It  may  seem  to  you  strange  that  this  "  consummation 
devoutly  to  be  wished  "  for,  was  not  attained.  But  you  must 
remember  that  it  has  been  the  policy  of  the  dominant  party  not 
to  bring  forward  their  measures  separately,  but  to  link  and 
fasten  them  together,  so  that,  by  a  combination  of  various  in- 
terests, all  should  be  dragged  through  together.  The  journals 
show  that  no  one  of  the  great  measures  of  either  session  ever 
commanded  the  majority  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  Not 
one  of  them.  Neither  distribution,  the  bank,  the  tariff,  nor  the 
bankrupt  law,  ever  had  a  majority  of  the  two  Houses  ;  and  yet 
all  of  them  were  gotten  through.  I  have  just  shown  you  how 
the  bankrupt  bill  dragged  through  the  distribution  bill,  and  how 
the  latter,  by  increasing  the  wants  of  the  treasury,  dragged 
through  the  tariff.  All  these  measures  were  declared  by  the 
Dictator  to  constitute  a  system,  and  should  be  judged  of  and 
acted  on  as  a  system,  and  not  on  their  individual  and  separate 
merits  or  demerits.  Hence  it  became  the  interest  of  all  to  sup- 
port each,  and  of  each  to  support  all.  But  the  President,  by 
his  veto,  had  put  the  bank  interest  out  of  the  concern,  and  there 
remained,  to  trade  upon  at  this  session,  only  the  two  remaining 
measures — distribution  and  the  tariff.  I  have  just  mentioned 
the  embarrassing  pledge  which  both  of  thes'e'  interests  had  given 
at  the  preceding  session.  According  to  that  pledge,  if  the  tariff 
went  up  above  twenty  per  cent.,  distribution  must  eease.  If 
it  did  not  go  up  above  twenty  per  cent.,  the  manufacturers  in- 
sisted that  they  would  be  ruined.  In  the  meantime,  it  was  known 
that  the  President  would  not  sanction  both.  What,  then,  was 
to  be  done  ?  The  party  was  in  extremis — its  agony  immense. 
If  the  walls  of  their  secret  council  chamber  could  speak,  what  a 
tale  would  they  tell  of  this  ill-judging  fmd  ill-doing  party  ! 
Well,  their  resolution  was  taken — to  make  one  more  bold  and 
united  charge,  and  drive  the  President,  if  possible,  from  his 
position — compel  him  to  sanction  both  distribution  and  a  higher 
tariff  than  the  compromise.  "  What  though  he  remind  us  that 
the  compromise  was  the  work  of  Mr.  Clay?  what  if  he  shall 
tell  us  of  General  Harrison's  and  his  own  pledges  of  1840? 


482  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMEN    ... 

what  if  he  show  us  the  page  of  our  own  recorded  pledge  of  the 
last  session  ?— we  have  no  alternative."  The  bill  is  accord- 
ingly prepared — distribution  and  protection  are  linked  together. 
What  sort  of  protection  ?  The  highest,  having  reference  to  the 
rates  established,  the  present  prices  of  most  articles,  and  the 
general  circumstances  of  the  times,  which  was  ever  passed  in 
this  country.  I  have  no  time  to  show  you  its  enormous  rates 
now  on  sugar,  iron,  salt,  domestics,  woollens,  on  everything.  I 
have  done  that  on  another  occasion.  The  Democrats  did  all 
they  could ;  they  stood  on  the  compromise  ;  they  advanced 
even  farther,  in  the  later  progress  of  the  measure,  They 
brought  forward  a  proposition  (Senator  Sevier's)  advancing 
five  per  cent,  on  the  compromise  act,  and  allowing  home  valu- 
ation and  cash  duties  beside — equal  to  at  least  thirty  per  cent. 
But  it  was  all  in  vain ;  their  own  bill,  and  nothing  but  their 
own  bill,  they  were  determined  to  have. 

They  passed  it  by  a  vote  of  105  to  103;  and,  had  all  the 
members  been  present,  it  would  have  been  an  exact  tie,  and 
dependent  on  the  vote  of  the  Speaker.  That  vote  would  have 
been  undoubtedly  given  in  favor  of  the  bill.  This  would  have 
presented  the  question,  whether  the  Whigs  would  have  had  a 
bill  by  virtue  of  the  one-man  power.  They  complain  griev- 
ously that  they  lose  a  bill  by  such  an  odious  power,  and  surely 
they  would  refuse  to  receive  one  from  such  a  source. 

The  bill  was  so  enormous  and  unjust  in  its  rate  of  duties, 
that,  although  it  was  one  of  high  party  interest,  every  one 
of  my  Whig  colleagues  from  Middle  and  West  Tennessee  (ex- 
cept Mr.  Gentry)  voted  against  it.  The  veto  of  the  President, 
however,  although  it  defeated  the  very  bill  which  they  them- 
selves had  voted  to  defeat,  they  did  not  and  would  not  support. 
Such  was  their  exasperation  against  Mr.  Tyler  for  doing  pre- 
cisely what  they  had  done,  (withholding  his  approbation,)  that 
when  the  bill  was  Again  put  on  its  passage,  as  required  by  the 
Constitution,  not  one  of  them  would  vote  against  it,  as  they  had 
done  before.  I  suppose  they  concluded,  that,  as  they  could  not 
consistently  vote  for  the  bill,  and  as  a  vote  against  it  might 
seem  too  much  like  agreeing  with  the  President,  they  concluded 
not  to  vote  at  all !  On  the  passage  of  the  McKennan  bill, 
(wi&ou$  distribution,)  the  Democratic  members  of  the  State 


A  LETTER. 


483 


had  the  gratification  of  recording  their  votes  with  those  of  every 
Whig  Representative  from  it  (except  Mr.  Joseph  L.  Williams) 
against  the  bill.  It  was,  indeed,  a  most  gratifying  concurrence 
of  opinion,  indicating  that  there  would  be,  at  all  events,  not 
more  than  one  man  from  the  whole  State  to  sustain  this  odious 
and  oppressive  measure.  But  our  satisfaction  was  of  brief  du- 
ration. When  the  bill  returned  from  the  Senate,  a  motion  was 
made  to  lay  it,  w,ith  all  its  amendments,  on  the  table.  If  this 
motion  succeeded,  the  bill  would  be  defeated,  and  the  country 
rescued  from  all  the  evils  which  it  was  calculated  to  inflict,  at 
least  on  the  agricultural  States.  It  was  the  last  final  test  vote 
on  the  subject.  Bat  our  Whig  friends,  with  only  two  excep- 
tions, voted  against  laying  it  on  the  table.  These  exceptions 
were  Mr.  Gentry  and  Mr.  C.  H.Williams,  who  were,  no  doubt, 
unavoidably  absent,  and,  therefore,  did  not  vote  at  all.  Even 
the  burly  and  intractable  Arnold,  who  had  been  with  us  in 
every  contest,  (after  he  lost  his  land,  and  got  so  mad  with 
President  Tyler  for  his  veto,)  now  deserted  us  in  the  last  dying 
struggle  against  the  bill,  and  went  back  and  joined  again  with 
our  oppressors  !  How  strong  are  the  triple  cords  that  bind  us 
to  our  party  !  I  return  from  digression,  to  pursue  further  the 
history  and  progress  of  this  measure. 

On  the  9th  of  August  the  President  returned  the  bill  with  his 
objections.  The  message  was  one  of  the  best  he  had  ever 
sent  to  Congress.  Lucid  in  style,  and  cogent  in  argument,  it 
marched  directly  on  its  object.  It  breathed  no  complaint  that 
a  second  experiment  had  been  made  to  drive  him  from  his 
known  opinions,  nor  uttered  the  slightest  rebuke  for  this  breach 
of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  party  which  had  originally  secured 
his  signature  to  the  distribution  bill.  But  he  was  met  in  no  cor- 
respondent spirit  of  forbearance  and  moderation.  What  was 
never  done  before,  was  perpetrated  on  this  occasion.  A  special 
committee,  composed  of  the  Presidents  bitterest  enemies — 
Adams,  Botts,  Granger,  and  others — was  appointed,  to  whom 
the  message  and  the  bill  were  referred.  The  report  of  Mr. 
Adams  was  all  that  might  be  expected  from  the  vast  but  poi- 
soned well  of  learning  (not  knowledge)  of  that  passionate  and 
irritable  old  man.  It  abounded  in  whatever  dislike  to  the  Pre- 
sident, hereditary  hatred  to  the  Democracy  of  the  country,  and 


484  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

an  ardent  desire  to  pay  off  his  old  debt  to  Mr.  Clay,  could  in- 
spire. It  went  far  beyond  the  proper  subject  referred  to  the 
committee,  and  was  evidently  intended  as  a  sort  of  apologetic 
address  to  the  American  people,  for  all  the  errors  and  short 
comings  of  the  Whig  party.  Without  taking  time  to  examine 
this  address,  let  me  recite  the  extraordinary  and  exciting  inci- 
dents in  relation  to  the  tariff,  subsequent  to  the  veto.  The 
Clay  portion  of  the  party  seemed  roused  to  the  very  highest 
pitch  of  rage  and  fury.  They  declared  for  instant  adjourn- 
ment. When  reminded  that  one  of  their  own  bills  (Mr.  Bar- 
nard's) for  remedying  real  or  supposed  defects  in  the  collection 
of  the  revenue,  ought  to  be  acted  on,  they  indignantly  refused 
to  go  into  committee  upon  it.  When  admonished  that  all  the 
duties  now  were  being  paid  under  protest,  and  that  if  the 
courts  should  determine  that  no  duties  at  all  we^e  collectable, 
the  consequence  might  be  the  stoppage  of  the  very  wheels  of 
government, — the  reply  was,  Let  them  stop,  and  on  John 
Tyler  be  the  responsibility.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Adams,  his 
report,  and  the  vote  of  the  Whig  party  all  indicated  a  fixed 
and  determined  purpose  to  abandon  the  halls  of  Congress 
forthwith,  and  leave  the  government  to  whatever  fate  might 
befall  it. 

Even  the  midnight  caucus  drill  had  lost  its  magic  potency. 
The  eloquence  of  Marshall,  (who  was  understood  to  be  the  first 
to  insist  that  the  bill  should  be  passed  without  distribution,)  the 
earnest  and  touching  appeals  of  the  manufacturers,  could  pro- 
duce no  effect  on  the  maddened  and  infuriated  cohorts  of  the 
Dictator.  The  caucus  broke  up  with  the  understanding  that 
they  could  agree  upon  nothing  on  the  subject,  as  a  party;  but 
that  any  member  of  it  might  bring  forward  such  proposition 
as  he  thought  proper,  and  that  each  one  should  vote  for  or 
against  it,  without  any  party  responsibility.  In  this  state  of 
things,  Mr.  McKennan,  a  Whig  of  Pennsylvania,  (a  convert  I 
believe  to  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Marshall,)  came  forward  with 
the  bill  which  had  been  vetoed — leaving  out  the  twenty-seventh 
section  in  relation  to  distribution.  In  his  speech,  he  avowed  his 
determination,  and  that  of  most  of  his  Whig  friends,  to  support 
this  bill,  and  no  other.  He  said  they  would  scorn  to  receive  one 
at  the  hands  of  the  Democrats ;  that  it  was  useless  for  thsm  to 


A  LETTER.  485 

move  in  the  matter  at  all.  Up  to  the  very  hour  when  the  bill 
was  passed,  it  was  understood  that  the  particular  friends  of  Mr. 
Clay  were  still  determined  to  go  against  the  bill,  and  that  they 
held  the  power  to  defeat  it.  This  presented  a  most  trying  crisis. 
That  something  should  be  done  in  relation  to  the  collection  of 
the  revenue,  was  admitted  by  all.  The  Democratic  party,  gen- 
erally, were  perfectly  content  with  the  rate  of  duties  of  the 
compromise ;  but  as  serious  doubts  were  entertained  by  many 
whether  some  new  law  was  not  necessary  to  regulate  the  mode 
of  collecting  them,  they  were  anxious  that  such  doubt  should 
be  removed.  They  had  often  tried  to  remove  it,  but  the  Whig 
party  had  always  prevented  them.  Now  they  were  told  that 
it  was  useless  for  them  to  propose  anything,  for  the  Whigs 
would  scorn  to  receive  it  at  their  hands.  WThat  a  strange  con- 
dition was  here.  The  Democrats  can  do  nothing,  because 
opposed  by  the  whole  Whig  party  en  masse.  The  Northern 
manufacturing  Whig  party  can  do  nothing,  because  they  pro- 
pose a  tariff  too  high  for  Democratic  acceptance  ;  and,  because 
it  omits  distribution,  the  friends  of.  Mr.  Clay  will  give  it  no 
support,  but  insist  on  instant  adjournment,  and  abandonment 
of  the  government  to  its  fate.  I  but  describe  to  you  the  actual 
and  embarrassing  condition  of  affairs  at  one  of  the  most  critical 
periods  of  our  history.  It  was  under  such  circumstances  rs 
these  that  the  Democrats  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  portion  from 
New  York,  resolved  to  throw  themselves  into  the  breach  be- 
tween the  discordant  Whig  factions,  and  save  the  government 
from  that  ruin  and  destruction  which  they  verily  believed  might 
be  the  consequence  of  the  madness  and  desperate  course  of 
the  Clay  faction.  The  same  state  of  things  was  found  to  exist 
in  the  other  House,  when  four  Democratic  Senators,  from  simi- 
lar motives,  pursued  the  same  course.  Whilst  I  cannot  assent 
to  their  reasoning,  nor  approve  of  their  vote,  I  feel  constrained 
to  admit  the  purity  and  patriotism  of  their  motives.  When, 
however,  it  wTas  discovered  that  the  bill  would  probably  be 
passed  without  their  aid,  these  "furiosi"  of  the  Whig  party 
began  to  think  what  sort  of  record  they  were  making  up  for 
themselves  and  their  friend  "  Harry  of  the  West,"  in  reference 
to  the  campaign  of  1844.  The  very  thought  that  this  desertion 
and  abandonment  of  the  manufacturing  interest  might  be  re- 


4S6  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENT?, 

membered  in  the  next  Presidential  canvass,  seemed  to  operate 
like  a  charm  upon  them.  One  by  one,  slow,  reluctant,  and 
solemn,  they  came  forward — Botts,  Stanly,  Thompson  of  Indi- 
ana, and  many  others — to  give  in  their  adhesion  to  the  bill;  but 
all  solemnly  declaring  that  they  would  never  surrender  to 
Captain  Tyler — never,  never,  not  they !  In  the  Senate,  the 
same  reluctant  capitulation.  Mr.  Crittenden  exclaimed  "  that 
he  looked  upon  this  as  the  proudest  victory  the  Whig  party  had 
ever  achieved  ;  they  had  conquered  (not  Capt.  Tyler,  but)  them- 
selves." Never  did  that  Senator  utter  a  sounder  truth  than 
that.  In  the  hectic  glow  of  pretended  triumph,  he  pronounced 
the  appropriate  epitaph  of  his  own  party, 

"  The  Whigs  have  conquered  themselves*  " 
They  have  accomplished  their  own  destruction,  by  the  folly  and 
wickedness  of  their  measures.  The  distribution  bill  broke 
down  our  national  credit,  and  brought  it  so  low  that  their  party 
can  scarcely  borrow  a  dollar,  even  at  enormous  interest,  either 
in  this  country  or  in  Europe.  How  could  they  expect  to  borrow 
money,  when,  with  no  means  of  repayment,  they  were  giving 
away  every  dollar  which  they  were  to  receive  from  the  sale  of 
our  vast  public  domain?  Who  would  lend  money,  either  to  an 
individual  or  government,  who  was  giving  away  with  one  hand 
whilst  he  was  borrowing  with  the  other? 

But  whilst  the  distribution  law  destroyed  our  national  credit, 
the  bankrupt  law  destroyed  all  remaining  confidence  between 
man  and  man,  and  thereby  increased  the  heart-rending  suffer- 
ings of  the  people  in  their  pecuniary  affairs.  What  foreign 
creditor  could  feel  easy  and  indulgent  to  his  American  debtor, 
when  the  next  packet  might  bring  the  news  that  he  "had 
taken  the  benefit  of  the  act,"  and  that  his  debt  was  lost  forever  ? 
What  Eastern  merchants  would  be  indulgent  to  the  Western 
ones  ?  And  how  could  the  last  be  indulgent  to  their  numerous 
customers — farmers,  mechanics  and  laborers  ?  Each  is  afraid 
to  wait,  lest  some  one  else  shall  get  the  start  of  him,  and  ex- 
haust his  property;  and  that  when  he  calls  for  his  pay,  he  may 
find  that  the  debtor  "has  nothing  more  than  the  law  allows."  Nor 
will  the  operation  of  this  new  tariff  fail  greatly  to  increase  the 
burdens  and  distresses  of  the  people.  It  is  impossible  for  it  to 
fail  to  do  so.     How  can  a  people,  already  oppressed  with  debts, 


A   LETTER,  487 

Jail  to  be  injured  by  being  required  to  pay  higher  taxes — higher 
for  his  salt,  his  iron,  his  sugar,  his  blankets ;  in  fact,  higher  for 
everything  he  either  eats,  drinks,  wears,  or  uses  ?  Everyman 
of  plain,  common  understanding,  must  see,  in  the  enormous 
rates  imposed  by  this  law,  deep,  and,  I  fear,  lasting  injury  to 
the  community  at  large ; — not  to  the  manufacturers,  not  to  the 
capitalists,  of  course:  these  will  fatten  and  grow  rich  upon  it; 
but  the  farmer,  the  planter,  the  mechanic,  and  laborer  must 
suffer  under  its  cruel  and  unjust  exactions.  To  show  you  its 
operation  since  its  passage,  I  subjoin  the  following  from  the 
New  York  Journal  of  Commerce: 

"  The  tariff,  though  a  great  relief  from  the  dangers  of  no  law,  is  yet  ope- 
rating very  severely  upon  merchants  engaged  in  the  foreign  trade.  A 
friend  of  ours  who  happened  to  be  yesterday  in  the  store  of  an  importer, 
seeing  a  row  of  packages  of  dry  goods  which  appeared  to  have  been  recently 
imported,  inquired  of  the  merchant  as  to  the  operation  of  the  tariff.  The 
duty  of  the  first  package,  said  the  merchant,  is  ninety  per  cent,  on  the  cost ; 
on  the  second,  one  hundred  per  cent.;  on  the  third  four  hundred  per  cent.; 
on  the  fourth,  fifty  per  cent.;  and  the  fifth,  two  hundred  per  cent.;  on  the 
sixth,  sixty  per  cent.;  and  on  the  rest  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent.  The 
duties,  it  will  be  remembered,  are  levied  from  the  day  of  the  signing  of 
the  act,  upon  goods  which  were  ordered  with  the  expectation  of  paying 
twenty  per  cent.  Such  duties,  payable  in  cash,  of  course  put  an  end  to 
trade.  The  package  which  paid  a  duty  of  four  hundred  per  cent.,  was  fancy 
cotton  handkerchiefs,  with  a  thread  of  silk  around  them  to  heighten  the 
color,  which  made  them  subject  to  the  specific  duty  on  silk  by  the  pound. 
It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  Congress,  after  so  long  a  session,  should 
have  come  to  so  unsatisfactory  a  result.  We  hope,  however,  that,  at  the 
next  session,  Congress  will  modify  the  extravagant  features  of  the  bill,  and 
bring  it  into  a  shape  which  will  give  to  all  kinds  of  business  the  fundamental 
basis  of  prosperity — permanence  and  steadiness." 

I  know  well  how  the  leaders  intend  to  escape  from  the  odium 
which  these  measures  must  bring  upon  them.  They  are  now 
engaged  in  raising  a  hue-and-cry  against  President  Tyler,  in 
order  to  draw  away  public  attention  from  their  own  evil  deeds, 
and  fix  the  blame  on  some  other  than  themselves.  It  was  ever 
the  custom  of  that  party  to  do  so.  Who  would  have  believed 
that  in  1840,  when  they  were  making  their  false  accusations  of 
corruption  against  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  they  were 
paying  out  thousands  to  briba  men  to  vote  against  him  in  the 
elections  ?  The  disclosures  of  Stevens  and  Glentworth,  and 
others,  have  since  come  to  light,  and  have   astonished  the  na- 


488  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

tion.  No  man  now,  of  any  party,  has  the  least  doubt  of  the 
substantial  truth  of  these  disclosures^  and  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands have  left  their  party  in  consequence  of  them.  Since 
that  election,  too,  the  old  United  States  Bank  has  rotted  down 
upon  its  foundations,  filling  the  land  with  the  stench  of  its  putri- 
dity and  corruption.  A  committee  appointed  by  the  stock- 
holders to  save  something,  if  possible,  for  them  from  the  wreck, 
have  reported  that  more  than  half  a  million  of  dollars  are  un- 
accounted for,  and  that  the  vouchers  for  that  amount  have 
been  suppressed  or  destroyed.  No  man  doubts  but  these 
vouchers,  if  produced,  would  have  shed  much  light  on  the 
bribery  and  fraud  of  the  last  election.  Again :  who  would  have 
believed,  when  the  itinerant  rhetors  of  that  party  were  travers- 
ing the  country  in  1840, making  the  loudest  professions  of  their 
devotion  to  order  and  law,  and  all  the  institutions  of  our  coun- 
try, that  they  had  formed,  and  were  cherishing  a  deep  design 
and  settled  purpose,  in  case  they  were  not  successful  in  that 
election,  to  destroy  all*  order,  to  disregard  all  laws,  and  over- 
turn our  institutions  by  revolutionary  violence?  At  a  period 
too  late  for  detection,  or  when  their  partisans  had  become  mad- 
dened and  infuriated  like  themselves,  these  designs  of  violence 
and  force1  were  publicly  avowed. 

In  a  speech  of  Senator  Preston,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  he 
is  reported  to  have  said:  "If  Mr.  Van  Buren  cannot  be  dis- 
placed through  the  ballot-box  in  November  next,  I,  for  one,  am 
ready  to  resort  to  such  means,  as  God  and  nature  have  put 
within  my  reach  to  fores  a  change."  Mr.  J.  C.  Graves,  in  a 
speech  at  Portsmouth,  Virginia,  is  also  reported  to  have  said  : 
"  If  it  were  not  for  the  hope  of  redress  through  the  ballot-box, 
I  would  here,  so  help  me  God,  upon  this  holy  altar,  take  an 
oath  this  night,  to  take  up  arms,  and  march  with  you  to  Wash- 
ington, and  put  down  the  present  dynasty  by  force.'1  The  late 
Secretary  of  War,  (Mr.  Bell,)  in  a  published  letter  to  the  party 
committees,  to  whom  he  was  writing,  said :  "The  appeal  is  now 
to  reason.  No  feelings  but  those  of  patriotism,  love  of  justice, 
and  equal  right,  need  be  invoked  as  yet:  though  the  day  may 
come,  when  a  sense  of  injury  and  oppression,  of  indignation 
for  a  country's  institutions  dishonored  and  overthrown,  may 
call  forth  deeper  passions  and  awaken  different  energies.     That 


A   LETTER,  489 

day  I  hope  may  not  come;  but  if  it  should,  I  shall  be  ready  to 
do  my  duty  then,  as  well  as  now."  Mr.  Butler  King,  of  Georgia, 
i3  reported  to  have  uttered  sentiments,  at  a  public  assembly  in 
Maryland,  which  I  have  not  now  before  me  ;  but  by  no  means 
less  violent  than  those  of  Senator  Preston,  Mr.  Graves,  and 
Secretary  Bell.  Another  member  of  Congress,  then  and  now 
quite  distinguished  in  the  Whig  party,  did  not  hesitate  often  and 
publicly  to  declare  that  he  went  for  the  peaceful  remedy  until 
November,  and,  if  not  successful,  he  meant  to  go  for  arms.*  I 
do  not  know  that  any  of  these  gentlemen  have  ever"denied  the 
language  here  attributed  to  them,  and  I  advert  to  them  as  a 
portion  of  the  party  history  of  the  last  Presidential  election; 
happy  if  I  shall  ever  be  authorized  by  any  of  them  to  correct 
any  of  the  statements  Here  imputed  to  them.  I  must  now  al- 
lude to  another  foul  and  wicked  plot  of  recent  disclosure. 

Mr.  Pleasants,  editor  of  the  Richmond  Whig,  in  a  letter,  dated 
August  25,  1842,  after  describing  the  state  of  excitement  for  a 
few  days  after  the  election  of  1840,  and  the  conclusion  amongst 
the  Whigs  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  been  elected,  and  in  their 
opinion,  by  fraudulent  voting,  proceeds  to  state  as  follows  : 

"  In  this  state  of  feelings,  three  individuals,  who  happened  to  be  together, 
interchanged  opinion,  found  an  entire  concurrence  of  sentiment  among  them- 
selves, and  hastily  arranged  the  heads  of  a  plan  for  redressing  the  wrongs  of 
the  country,  by  securing  the  person  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  previous  to  his  inau- 
guration. Three  things  were  to  precede  putting  it  in  execution  :  1.  The 
election  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  2.  That  he  could  not  have  been  returned  with- 
out the  vote  of  Virginia.  3.  Proof,  carrying  positive  and  undoubted  cer- 
tainty with  it,  that  his  maj  jrity  in  Virginia  was  fraudulent.  These 
preliminaries  ascertained,  twenty  persons  (men  who  could  depend  on  one 
another)  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  association,  under  the  pledge  of  secrecy 
and  fidelity.  Ten  of  the  number  were  to  proceed  to  Washington  in  a  fast 
steamboat,  giving  out  that  their  object  was  a  jaunt  of  amusement,  to  witness 
the  approaching  inauguration.  It  was  imagined  that  there  would  be  little 
difficulty  in  finding  an  opportunity  in  conveying  Mr.  Van  Buren  on  board 
by  stratagem  or  force  ;  and,  this  done,  the  boat  was  to  run  with  all  despatch 
for  Albemarle  Sound,  previously  agreed  upon  as  the  destination.  There  the 
ten  were  to  be  met  by  their  associates,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  be  escorted  by 
the  whole  into  the  upper  districts  of  North  Carolina — Cornwallis's  most 
rebellious  people  in  America — and  whom  we  know  to  be  now  as  staunch 
Whigs  as  their  fathers  were  in  1780.     Arrived  there,  a  manifesto  was  to  be 

*  Mr.  Botts. 


490  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

published,  addressed  to  the  American  people,  declaring  the  motives  and 
objects  of  the  act,  and  the  vicinage  assembled  and  appealed  to.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  himself  was  to  be  treated  with  the  greatest  possible  respect  and 
courtesy,  compatible  with  safe  custody.  The  manifesto  was  to  demand  a  new 
election,  and  the  restoration  of  the  rights  of  the  majority.  The  next 
Northern  mail  brought  confirmation  of  a  great  Whig  victory,  and,  of  course, 
the  plan  of  abduction  and  all  thoughts  of  it  were  abandoned.  Whether  it 
would  have  been  executed,  if  the  t  vents  had  fallen  out,  the  anticipaiion  of 
which  ltd  to  its  conception,  is  beyond  my  power  to  know,  i"  believe  it  would 
have  been;  for,  although  it  was  embraced  in  pa-siun,  that  pasdon  was  not 
likely  to  cool  by  witnessing  successful  frauds  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  spoils." 

I  have  no  time  or  inclination  to  dwell  on  this  nefarious  and 
"wicked  purpose;  it  is  submitted  to  the  calm  judgment  of  a 
people,  who  may  sometimes  be  cajoled  and  imposed  upon,  but 
cannot  be  prevailed  upon  deliberately  to  sanction  that  violence 
which  puts  all  law  and  order  and  humanity  at  defiance.  Who 
does  not  know  that,  if  this  project  had  been  carried  out,  what 
commenced  in  kidnapping  and  abduction,  would  have  ended  in 
the  murder  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  his  testi- 
mony against  the  perpetrators  of  so  foul  a  deed?  And  who 
can  doubt  the  imminent  peril  and  danger  to  which  John  Tyler 
is  every  day  and  every  night  exposed,  from  the  same  foul  and 
demoniac  spirit?  This  very  letter  was  written,  in  order  to 
show  that  abduction  was  not  the  proper  remedy  in  Mr.  Tyler's 
case.  But  when  the  lawless  brigands  of  the  party  shall  hear 
from  Washington  that  impeachment  is  impracticable,  what 
may  not  be  expected  from  the  rejected  office-seeker,  or  the 
infuriated  political  desperado  ?  The  session  closed  with  the 
charge  of  treason  and  perjury  burning  on  the  lips  of  nearly 
every  prominent  leader  of  the  Clay  faction,  well  calculated  to 
admonish  some  half-crazed  retainer  that  "it  would  be  doing 
God  service"  to  despatch  him  with  the  stiletto  or  pistol.  The 
wretch  who  basely  attempted  to  assassinate  General  Jackson 
on  the  steps  of  the  capitol,  had  not  half  the  encouragement  to 
the  perpetration  of  the  bloody  deed. 

And  now,  my  countrymen,  before  I  close  this  letter — already 
too  long — permit  me  to  ask  whether  you  intend  any  longer  to 
attach  yourselves  to  a  party,  led  on  by  political  leaders  such 
as  I  have  described?     Many  of  you,  I  know,  joined  that  party 


A    LETTER,  491 

with  great  hesitation ;  you  have  continued  with  them  with  great 
reluctance  ;  you  have  never  felt  entirely  satisfied,  either  with 
their  measures  or  proceedings ;  but  you  have,  nevertheless, 
generally  gone  along  with  them,  justifying  some  things,  it  is 
true,  but  apologizing  for  the  most  of  what  they  have  been 
doing.  Who  of  you  that  marched  in  their  processions,  and 
united  with  them  in  raising  the  liberty-poles  and  the  cabins  in 
1840,  had  the  slightest  suspicions  that  such  wicked  and  bloody 
designs  were  entertained  as  have  since  been  fully  established 
upon  them?  Who,  that  listened  to  their  speeches,  breathing 
nothing  but  devotion  to  liberty,  religion  and  law,  could  have 
been  made  to  believe  that  the  time  was  so  near  at  hand  when 
you  might  be  called  on  by  them  to  rear  the  standard  of  revo- 
lution ?  I  know  the  great  body  of  the  Whig  party  never  thought, 
never  dreamed,  of  such  results.  But  they  are  now  disclosed — 
made  manifest;  and  every  man  who  respects  order  and  good 
government — every  man  who  reverences  the  principles  of  our 
holy  religion — every  man  who  loves  his  country,  her  freedom, 
her  constitution,  or  her  laws,  should  go  no  further  with  them. 

They  have  determined  to  rule  or  ruin  this  country ;  to  rule 
by  fraud  and  bribery  at  elections,  or  by  force  and  violence  after 
them;  to  ruin  by  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  their  measures,  or 
by  a  new  and  alarming  method  discovered  and  introduced  by 
them  within  the  last  few  years.  Throughout  the  turbulent  ses- 
sion of  the  twenty-sixth  Congress,  it  is  known  to  every  member 
of  it,  that  often,  when  unable  to  carry  their  point  without  it,  they 
would  withdraw  by  common  concert,  in  order  to  reduce  the 
House  below  a  quorum;  and  when  a  call  was  ordered,  in  order 
to  force  their  attendance,  they  would  drop  back  into  their  seats 
and  answer  their  names ;  thereby  avoiding  the  responsibility  of 
such  revolutionary  movements.  For  one  whole  night — from 
sunset  to  sunrise — have  we  seen  this  party  withdrawing  and 
returning,  marching  out,  and  then  marching  back  again,  in 
order  to  weary  out  and  baffle  the  lawful  and  constitutional  legis- 
lation of  the  House.  In  the  Senate,  on  one  occasion,  the 
author  and  founder  of  this  new  and  alarming  principle  of  party 
action,  in  order  to  defeat  the  nomination  of  Judge  Daniel  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  with  a  lofty  (not  to  say  insulting)  air,  audi- 
bly bade  "  good  night"  to  the  majority,  and  marched  out  of  the 


492  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

chamber,  with  all  his  partisans  at  his  heels !  Look  at  the  con- 
tagious influence  of  this  example  in  Ohio.  The  waters  of  bit- 
terness have  gushed  out  from  the  high  places  of  the  nation, 
and  no  one  can  tell  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  poisonous  ^ 
inundation.  What  occurred  in  Tennessee  has  no  analogy. 
The  case  stands  widely  different  in  all  its  principles.  If,  how- 
ever, anybody  shall  suppose  that  there  can  be  the  slightest  re- 
semblance, let  it  be  remembered,  that  it  cannot  be  unjust  that 
he  who  poisons  the  cup  should  sometimes  be  compelled  to  quaff 
its  deadly  contents. 

But  I  must  conclude.  Gladly  would  I  have  communicated 
all  these  things,  and  many  more,  by  personal  intercourse  with 
you  ;  but  the  indisposition  of  my  family  detaining  me  here  for  a 
while,  some  little  attention  to  my  private  affairs,  and  the  near 
approach  of  another  session  of  Congress  rendered  it  impos- 
sible. Your  obedient  servant, 

AARON  V.   BROWN. 

Washington,  September  15,  1842. 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 


In  thje  House  of  Representatives, 
June,  1844. 

Mr.  Aaron  V.  Brown  said  that  he  felt  constrained  to  ask  the 
indulgence  of  the  House  whilst  he  submitted  a  few  observations 
personal  to  himself.  The  near  approach  of  the  adjournment 
compelled  him  to  take  this  course  as  the  only  method  of  vindi- 
cating himself  against  a  certain  publication  in  yesterday's 
Globe.  He  was  compelled  to  speak  of  it  as  a  newspaper  pub- 
lication, because  he  could  not,  under  the  rules,  refer  to  the  de- 
bates in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol.  He  begged  leave  to  read 
the  following  paragraph  from  that  paper  :* 

"  The  war  was  expiring.  The  armistice,  and  the  interposition  of  great 
powers,  was  bringing  it  to  a  close  ;  and  the  day  was  at  hand  when  the  re- 
union of  Texas  would  have  come  of  itself,  and  with  peace  and  honor,  when 
this  insidious  scheme  of  sudden  and  secret  annexation,  and  its  miserable  pre- 
texts, was  fallen  upon  by  our  hapless  administration.  From  the  moment  that 
scheme,  and  its  pretexts,^rs£  revealed  itself  to  public  view,  at  a  public  dinner 
in  Virginia,  in  the  autumn  of  the  last  year,  I  denounced  it  as  an  intrigue,  got 
up  for  the  election  and  to  end  in  the  disgrace  of  its  authors,  and  in  the  de- 
feat, delay,  and  embarrassment  of  the  measure  which  it  professed  to  desire. 
I  particularly  made  this  denunciation  to  the  gentleman  [Mr.  A.  V.  Brown] 
who  had  got  the  letter  from  General  Jackson  in  February,  1843,  and  who 
seemed  to  be  vicariously  charged  with  some  enterprise  on  my  humble  self. 
It  was  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  session  of  Congress ;  I 
answered  him  on  the  spot ;  and,  as  I  have  no  concealments,  the  gentleman 
referred  to  is  at  liberty  to  relate  all  that  I  said  to  him  to  the  whole  world." 

Now,  sir,  (said  Mr.  B.,)  I  mean  to  make  no  reply  to  any  por- 
tion of  that  publication  but  what  relates  personally  to  myself. 
The  "insinuation  as  to  the  "vicarious"  character  which  I 
"  seemed''''  to  sustain  in  the  conversation  alluded  to,  is  wholly 


494  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

destitute  of  foundation.  There  is  not  one  word  of  truth  in  it, 
whatever  the  impression  of  that  senator  [Mr,  Benton]  may  have 
been  at  the  time,  nor  the  slightest  pretext  for  it.  The  conver- 
sation referred  to,  was  not  confidential,  nor  held  at  any  private 
interview  between  us.  We  casually  fell  in  company,  as  mem- 
bers frequently  do,  in  going  to  or  from  the  Capitol  to  their 
boarding  houses.  We  were  walking  on  the  public  pavements, 
when  the  conversation  chanced  to  turn  on  the  subject  of  annex- 
ation. He  advanced  some  of  the  opinions  which  he  has  since 
avowed  in  his  speeches.  The  distance  of  our  walk  would  not 
have  allowed  him  to  advance  them  all.  He  was  vehement  in 
denouncing  the  motives  which  had  induced  the  President  to 
bring  forward  the  subject,  and  the  secret  influences  which  he 
believed  had  prompted  him  to  do  so.  This  latter  suspicion, 
and  the  surprise  which  the  general  tenor  of  his  remarks  ex- 
cited, (for  I  had  never  doubted  that  he  would  be  warmly  for  it,) 
induced  me  to  refer  to  my  correspondence  with  General  Jackson 
on  the  subject.  I  made  this  reference  with  the  hope  that,  when 
he  should  learn  that  his  great  friend  (General  Jackson)  was 
so  intimately  connected  with  the  effort  to  acquire  that  fine 
country,  he  would  pause  and  mature  the  subject  well  before  he 
threw  himself  in  opposition  to  the  measure.  Sir,  up  to  that 
time  I  had  never  stopped  to  consider  how  the  question  would 
operate  on  the  coming  Presidential  election;  and  my  conversa- 
tion had  no  reference  whatever  to  its  influence  that  way.  It 
could  not  have  had  any  such  reference,  for  I  was  then  a  warm 
and  decided  friend  to  Mr.  Van  Buren's  nomination,  and  had 
done  much,  in  my  own  State  and  elsewhere,  to  suppress  any 
movement  calculated  to  prevent  it.  This  single  fact,  known  to 
hundreds,  must  forever  exonerate  me  from  the  .imputation  of 
having  aided  or  abetted,  vicariously  or  otherwise,  in  getting  up 
and  sustaining  this  Texas  movement  for  any  political  pur- 
poses. 

Whatever  part  I  have  taken  in  getting  it  up,  has  been  very 
humble  and  unimportant ;  but  I  am  free  to  make  it  known  to 
the  world,  and  to  defy  any  man  or  all  men  successfully  to  im- 
pugn my  motives. 

Early  in  the  winter  of  1842-3,  I  became  convinced  that  the 
affairs  of  Texas  were  coming  rapidly  to  a  crisis,  and  that  she 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS. 


495 


must  find  some  strong  support,  or  she  could  not  sustain  herself 
to  any  advantage  among  the  independent  nations  of  the  earth. 
Hence  it  naturally  occurred  to  me,  that  the  most  favorable 
period  would  shortly  arrive  for  its  re- annexation  to  the  United 
States.  I  saw  the  present  administration  peculiarly  situated. 
A  President  without  a  party — nay,  worse  than  that,  a  President 
between  two  great  parties,  seldom  sustained  by  either,  and 
often  warred  upon  by  both.  Under  such  circumstances,  I  ap- 
prehended it  might  be  difficult  to  prevail  on  him,  however 
anxious  he  might  be  personally  to  do  so,  to  enter  on  any  great 
measure  such  as  the  acquisition  of  Texas.  Influenced  by  these 
opinions,  in  January,  1843, 1  addressed  a  letter  to  Gen.  Jack- 
son, adverting  to  many  or  all  of  these  circumstances,  and  ex- 
pressing the  belief  that,  if  his  opinions  were  still  in  favor  of  the 
measure,  as  I  knew  they  formerly  were,  a  clear  and  decided 
letter  from  him  might  be  useful  in  rousing  up  or  sustaining  the 
administration  in  making  such  a  movement.  In  the  spirit  of 
ardent  affection  and  admiration,  I  expressed  the  desire  that  his 
name  should  be  connected  with  a  great  achievement  like  that, 
and  that  it  would  be  the  crowning  glory  of  his  long  and  eventful 
life.  I  give  the  substance  and  not  the  words  of  the  letter.  1 
was  so  explicit  as  to  the  use  I  intended  to  make  of  his  letter  in 
inciting  the  administration  to  make  the  movement,  that  I  think 
I  desired  him,  if  he  was  unwilling  for  it  to  be  so  used,  not  to 
write  it.  Sir,  his  reply  was  received.  It  was  used,  and  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  it  did  much  good  in  encouraging  the 
President  to  enter  on  this  great  work.  It  has  also  been  pub- 
lished to  his  countrymen  ;  and  I  rejoice  to  see,  every  day,  the 
good  that  it  is  accomplishing. 

And  now,  Mr.  Speaker,  what  is  there  in  this  simple  narrative 
that  should  have  called  down  on  me  the  animadversion  of  any- 
body, especially  of  that  distinguished  Senator  with  whom  I  per- 
fectly agreed  as  to  a  Presidential  candidate,  and  for  whom  I 
had  ever  borne  the  highest  testimony  to  his  patriotism  and 
talents.  He  speaks  of  absolving  me  of  all  secrecy,  and  kindly 
informs  me  that  I  am  at  liberty  to  state  all  that  he  said  to  me 
on  that  occasion.  Sir,  there  was  no  secrecy,  and  nothing  was 
said  by  him  which  he  might  not  well  be  willing  that  the  whole 
world  should  know.  But,  let  me  tell  you,  in  that  respect,  I 
33 


946  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

stand  on  as  high  grounds  as  he  does,  and  as  proudly  challenge 
every  insinuation  against  either  my  motives  or  my  actions.  I 
have  not  arraigned  his  in  any  respect,  neither  ought  he  to  have 
arraigned  mine. 


A  CARD. 


My  attention  has  been  called  to  Mr.  A.  V.  Brown's  statement  on  ihe  floor 
of  the  House  of  Representative  s,  in  which  he  disclaims  the  vicarious  char- 
acter attributed  to  him  in  the  affair  of  General  Jackson's  letter,  and  the 
conversation  with  myself,  and  in  which  he  says,  "  the  conversation  chanced  to 
fall  on  annexation."  This  is  a  great  mistake.  There  was  no  chance  about 
it.  Mr.  Brown  accosted  me  coming  clown  the  steps  of  the  Capitol,  and  I 
returned  bis  salutation  with  entii  e  civility  ;  when  he  immediately  began  with, 
glaJto  see  me — wanted  to  see  me — and  commenced  a  t^k  upon  Texas,  as  a 
thing  of  premeditation,  and  the  evident  cause  of  his  wishing  to  see  me.  I, 
seeing  the  Texas  movement  then  as  I  see  it  now— a  scheme,  on  the  part  of 
some  of  its  movers,  to  dissolve  the  Union— on  the  part  of  some  others,  as  an 
iotrlgue  for  the  Presidency — and  on  the  part  of  others,  (I  only  speak  of  prime 
movers,  not  the  millions  who  follow,)  as  a  land  speculation  and  a  job  in 
scrip, — answered  ab:uptly  and  warmly— he  may  tell  what.  But  I  never  at- 
tributed to  Mr.  Brown  any  other  ag  ncy  in  the  movement  than  the  vicarious 
interpellation  above  referred  to  ;  and,  as  to  his  and  my  Van  Bureuism  being 
the  same  thing,  I  must  beg  to  be  excused.  J  knew  that  his  would  evaporate 
when  and  where  it  did,  and  said  so  to  some  friends  ;  and  I  knew  that  mine 
would  sLand  any  test.  The  General  Jackson  letter  always  appeared  to  me  to 
have  been  vicariously  obtained  ;  and  nothir  g  that  Mr.  Brown  has  now  said, 
impairs,  in  the  slightest  degree,  that  fir^t  belief. 

THOMAS  H.  BENTON. 

Senate  Chamber,  June  13. 


House  of  Representatives,) 
June  14,  1844.     \ 

Mr.  Blair  :  I  have  certainly  no  disposition  to  become  con- 
spicuous in  any  controversy  with  the  Senator  from  Missouri, 
[Mr.  Benton.]  He  took  occasion,  in  the  Senate,  to  indulge  in 
some  reflections  on  the  part  I  had  taken  in  relation  to  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas,  which  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  reply  to  on  the 
floor  of  the  House. 

In  his  card  of  this  morning,  he  again  refers  to  the  conversa- 
tion between  us  in  walking  from  the  Capitol,  and  insists  that  it 
was  not  by  chance  that  the  conversation  turned  on  the  subject 
of  Texas,  because  I  expressed  myself  glad  to  see  him,  and  was 
myself  the  first  to  give  the  conversation  that  direction.     If  the 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  497 

Senator's  recollection  is  clear  on  these  points,  I  will  not  dispute 
them  at  all  with  him ;  for  in  those  days  I  was  ever  glad  to  see 
him — to  walk  with  him,  and  hear  his  conversations;  and,  as  I 
have  felt  from  the  beginning  great  solicitude  on  the  subject  of 
Texas,  I  may  have  been  the  first  to  advert  to  it.  But  I  again 
aver,  that  there  was  no  such  premeditation  or  design  on  my 
part,  as  he  gratuitously  attributes  to  me.  But  all  this  is  not  the 
question.  Did  I  seek  out  that  conversation,  at  the  instance  of 
any  other  person,  and  in  the  way  of  an  "  enterprise  "  on  Colonel 
Benton  ?  That  is  the  precise  question  which  I  sought  to  meet 
by  an  unequivocal  denial.  I  adverted  to  some  facts  which  I 
supposed  would  confirm  that  denial,  and  convince  Mr.  Benton 
that  he  had  done  me  injustice  in  the  suspicion.  But  he  is  in- 
credulous, and  I  am  indifferent.  He  says  (after  naming  the 
difFerent  lights  in  which  he  then  and  still  views  this  Texas 
movement)  that  he  answered  abruptly  and  warmly,  "he  may 
tell  what."  I  have  already  stated  that  his  manner  was  vehe- 
ment and  denunciatory  of  the  President  and  those  under  whose 
influences  he  supposed  him  to  have  been  acting.  But  I  did  not 
suppose,  of  course,  that  any  portion  of  all  this  was  either  aimed 
at  General  Jackson  for  writing  his  letter,  or  at  me  for  corres- 
1  ponding  with  him  on  the  subject;  but  to  have  been  aimed  en- 
tirely at  others  in  the  South,  who  might  be  supposed  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  public  dinner  in  Virginia.  But  I  repeat,  in 
justice  to  him,  that  he  said  nothing,  now  remembered,  which 
he  either  has  not  since  repeated,  or  might  well  be  willing  for 
anybody  to  know. 

The  Senator  is  mistaken  (if  he  ever  can  be  mistaken)  when  he 
supposes  that  I  have  anywhere  said  that  his  and  my  Van  Bu- 
renism  were  the  same.  I  only  spoke  in  the  positive,  never  in 
the  comparative  degree.  My  Van  Burenism,  I  thought,  at  all 
times,  was  good ;  but  I  would  have  admitted,  at  any  time,  if 
he  desired  it,  that  his  was  better.  Mine  evaporated  when  I 
thought  my  duty  to  Democracy  demanded  it.  His,  I  hope,  has 
not  lasted  any  longer  than  that.  Col.  Benton  closes  his  card 
by  saying :  "  The  General  Jackson  letter  always  appeared  to- 
me to  have  been  vicariously  obtained."  I  have  already  stated 
the  circumstances  connected  with  the  correspondence  between 


498  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

myself  and  General  Jackson,  and  self-respect  will  allow  me  to 
make  no  further  allusion  to  it  for  Col.  Benton's  satisfaction*. 

No  man  who  knows  anything  of  either  my  personal  or  politi- 
cal history,  could  be  made  to  believe  that  I  either  could,  or 
would,  be  willing  to  practice  on  General  Jackson,  under  any 
sort  of  vicarious  agency. 

Beside  this,  it  is  now  nearly  eighteen  months  since  that  cor- 
respondence took  place.  General  Jackson  has  followed  it  up 
by  many  letters  to  others.  He  has  seen  all  that  some  of  his 
best  friends  (Col.  Benton  among  the  number)  have  said,  and 
can  say,  and  yet  he  complains  of  no  vicarious  practices  upon  him. 
He  can  discover  no  insidious  schemes,  with  all  their  miserable 
pretexts — no  indelible  stains  of  national  dishonor,  in  these 
efforts  to  acquire  the  noblest  country  upon  this  continent. 
Having  embarked  in  this  great  work,  he  is  going  on  bravely 
with  it.  He  would  have  been  glad,  I  know  he  would,  if  Col. 
Benton  could  have  thought  it  right  to  co-operate  with  him. 
But  whilst  he  has  never  pretended  to  arraign  Colonel  Benton's 
motives  for  the  course  which  he  has  doubtless  felt  it  his  duty  to 
pursue,  he  and  those  friends  who  do  co-operate  with  him  are 
entitled  to  a  like  exemption  from  censure. 

Respectfully, 

A.  V.  BROWN. 


TO  THE  PUBLIC  AT  LARGE, 

And  to  the   Constituents  of  the  Hon.  John  Quincy  Adams  in 

particular* 


The  apology  for  this  address  is  to  be  found  in  the  speeches 
of  Mr.  Adams  at  Boston,  at  Weymouth  Landings  and  at 
Bridgewater,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  In  these  speeches 
he  has  assailed  me  with  a  wantonness  and  bitterness  which  can 
find  no  justification  in  any  conduct  of  mine  towards  him. 
Whether  addressing  the  young  men  of  Boston,  chiefly  against 
General  Jackson,  or  his  constituents  at  Weymouth  Landing 
against  Mr.  Charles  J.  Ingersoll,  or  at  Bridgewater  against 
President  Polk,  he  repeats  his  abuse  of  me  with  a  frequency 
and  malignity,  altogether  discreditable  to  any  man  of  his  age 
and  station  in  society.  No  language  which  the  smallest  degree 
of  self-respect  will  allow  me  to  use,  can  even  approximate  the 
grossness  of  the  epithets  which  he  has  been  pleased  to  employ 
on  all  the  occasions  to  which  I  have  referred.  These  speeches 
were  so  carefully  prepared,  and  have  been  so  extensively  cir- 
culated through  the  public  press,  that  I  do  not  feel  willing  to 
let  them  pass  off  as  the  ravings  of  an  irritable  old  man,  whose 
infirmities  are  rather  to  be  pitied  than  resented. 

Mr.  Adams  is,  indeed,  venerable  for  his  years;  but  lie  has 
not  and  will  not  retire  from  the  strife  of  public  affairs.  He 
remains  within  the  arena,  a  knight  in  full  armor,  clutching  his 
spear,  and  assailing,  with  fiendish  malignity,  all  who  come 
near  him.  What  right,  then,  has  he  to  expect  infirmities  of 
senility  to  protect  him  from  the  blows  and  wounds  of  the 
tournament? 

But  I  proceed  at  once  to  Mr.  Adams's  complaints  against  me. 


500  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

This  seems  to  be  the  publication  of  General  Jackson's  letter  to 
me  of  February,  1843,  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
In  his  Boston  address  he  sets  out  the  whole  letter;  but  takes 
the  greatest  exception  to  the  following  extract  from  it : 

"  Soon  after  my  election  in  1829,  it  was  made  known  to  me  by  Mr.  Erving, 
formerly  our  Minister  at  the  Court  of  Madrid,  that,  whilst  at  that  court,  he 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  a  treaty  with  Spain  for  the  cession  of  the  Flor- 
idas,  and  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  of  Louisiana,  fixing  the  western 
limit  of  the  latter  at  Rio  Grande,  agreeably  to  the  understanding  of  France; 
that  he  had  written  home  to  our  government  for  powers  to  complete  and 
sign  the  negotiation  ;  but  that,  instead  of  receiving  such  authority,  the  nego- 
tiation was  taken  out  of  his  hands  and  transferred  to  Washington,  and  a 
new  treaty  was  there  concluded,  by  which  the  Sabine,  and  not  the  Rio 
Grande,  was  recognized,  and  established  as  the  boundary  of  Louisiana.  Find- 
ing that  these  statements  were  true,  and  that  our  government  did  really  give 
up  that  important  territory,  when  it  was  at  its  option  to  reta'n  it,  I  was  filled 
with  astonishment.  The  right  to  the  territory  was  obtained  from  France. 
Spain  stood  ready  to  acknowledge  it  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  yet  the  autho- 
rity asked  by  our  Minister  to  insert  the  true  boundary  was  not  only  withheld, 
but  in  lieu  of  it,  a  limit  was  adopted  depriving  us  of  the  whole  vast  country 
lying  between  the  two  rivers." 

Mr.  Adams,  in  commenting  on  this  part  of  General  Jackson's 
letter,  inquires, "  in  what  language  of  composure  and  decency, 
can  I  say  to  you  that  there  is,  in  this  bitter  and  venomous 
charge,  not  one  single  word  of  truth ;  that  it  is,  from  beginning 
to  end,  grossly,  glaringly,  and  wilfully  false?"  What  terrible 
words  !  and  what  a  towering  fit  of  passion  seems  to  come  over 
him  at  once!  Surely  this  must  bean  entirely  new  and  unex- 
pected charge — one  which  Mr.  Adams  had  never  heard  of  be- 
fore, and  now  hearing,  is  filled  with  honest  and  just  indignation  ! 
But  no  such  thing.  It  had  been  made  against  him  as  far  back 
as  1820,  and  published  to  the  world  more  than  fifteen  years  be- 
fore Gen.  Jackson's  letter  was  either  written  or  published  :  not 
made  against  him  then  by  Gen.  Jackson,  but  by  that  man  that 
once  foisted  him  into  the  Presidency  against  the  will  of  a  be- 
trayed and  insulted  people — by  Mr.  Clay,  whose  election  he 
was  trying  to  secure  by  these  very  speeches.  From  a  letter 
written  at  Washington  by  Mr.  Clay,  dated  16th  April,  1820,  to 
a  then  friend  in  Kentucky,  and  published  in  the  United  States 
Telegraph  of  August  2d,  1828, 1  make  the  following  extract : 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  501 

"  There  is  a  rumor  in  the  city  which  will  astonish  you,  in  regard  to  the 
conclu  ion  of  that  (the  Florida)  treaty.  It  has  been  asserted  by  a  member 
of  Congress,  a-  coming  from  high  authority,  that  prior  to  the  conclusion  of 
the  tr  aty,  it  was  known  to  Mr.  Adams  th it  we  could  have  obtained  more 
than  was  conveyed  to  us — that  is,  that  the  Spanish  negotiator  was  allowed 
by  his  infractions  to  grant  us  more,  but  that  less  was  taken,  because  the 
Spani  h  Minis!  r  declared,  if  he  went  up  to  his  instr  utions,  he  si  ould  be 
afraid,  of  some  personal  i;  jury  upon  his  return  home.  What  will  you  in  the 
west  t;  ink  of  the  wisdom  of  that  policy  which  which  consents  to  surrender 
an  important  part  of  our  territory  from  such  a  motive  ]" 

Here  is  the  first  charge  made  against  Mr.  Adams  for  surren- 
dering up  Texas  in  that  negotiation.  It  was  made  by  Mr. 
Adams's  most  especial  friend — that  friend  to  whom  he  stands 
solely  indebted  for  the  highest  office  which  he  ever  filled.  It 
was  published  in  1828  ;  and  Mr.  Adams's  eyes  have  doubtless 
met  it  a  thousand  times.  Does  he  deny  it?  Did  he  get  up  at 
Boston  and  deny  it — at  Weymouth  Landing,  at  Bridgewater, 
or  anywhere  else  ?  No,  never,  that  I  have  heard  of.  Did  he 
give  Mr.  Clay  the  lie  for  uttering  it,  as  he  has  done  General 
Jackson  ?  Mr.  Clay  was  then  his  Secretary  of  State,  living 
daily  on  his  bounty.  Did  he  send  for  him  and  say  to  him, 
You  have  slandered  my  good  name — you  have  ruined  the 
inheritance  of  my  children,  and  you  must  leave  m:,  cabinet 
immediately  ?  No  such  thing.  This  new  cause  of  quarrel, 
like  the  old  question  of  veracity,  was  adjourned  over  to  some 
period  more  propitious  to  calm  investigation. 

Mr.  Clay,  then,  was  Mr.  Adams's  first  accustr  of  dereliction 
of  duty  in  the  negotiation  of  the  Florida  treaty.  He  accuses 
him  by  name — on  the  authority  of  a  member  of  Congress,  who 
is  said  to  have  got  it  from  one  high  in  authority.  He  states  in 
his  letter  that  it  was  known  to  Mr.  Adams  that  we  could  have 
obtained  more  than  was  conveyed  to  us.  He  was  writing  on 
other  subjects,  but  stepped  aside  to  denounce  Mr.  Adams  for 
surrendering  an  important  part  of  our  territory  from  improper 
motives. 

Contrast  the  time  and  circumstances  under  which  General 
Jackson  alluded  to  the  same  dereliction  of  duty.  He  was  writing 
on  the  re-annexation  of  Texas;  the  manner  in  which  it  had 
been  lost  lay  directly  in  his  way.  Mr.  Adams's  name  is  not 
mentioned,  and  the  whole  matter  is  alluded  to  with  a  forbear- 
ance not  to  be  observed  at  all  in  Mr.  Clay's  letter. 


502  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

I  do  not  pretend  to  insist  that  the  silence  of  Mr.  Adams,  under 
the  charges  of  Mr.  Clay,  was  conclusive  evidence  of  his  guilt; 
but  I  do  maintain  that  after  he  has  submitted  to  it  uncom- 
plainingly for  so  many  years,  he  has  no  right  to  affect  such 
horror  at  its  repetition  in  a  more  gentle  form  by  Gen.  Jackson, 
nor  to  pour  out  upon  him,  nor  upon  myself,  for  publishing  it, 
such  a  torrent  of  vulgar  epithets  and  billingsgate  abuse.  What 
ought  he  to  have  done  ?  What  would  all  men  have  been  glad 
to  see  him  do  on  the  appearance  of  General  Jackson's  letter  to 
me?  He  ought,  if  innocent,  to  have  addressed  the  public, 
stating  that  Mr.  Clay  had  made  this  accusation  first  against 
him;  that  he  perceived  that  General  Jackson  had  fallen  into  the 
same  error  ;  and  then  have  produced  the  evidence  of  his  inno- 
cence. He  saw,  on  the  face  of  General  Jackson's  letter,  that 
his  information  was  derived  from  Mr.  Erving,  that  it  was  com- 
municated in  writing,  and  that  that  writing  was  in  my  posses- 
sion. Calling  on  me,  he  could  have  inspected  Mr.  Erving's 
communication,  and  thus  ascertained  whether  General  Jackson 
or  Mr.  Erving  was  to  be  censured  for  the  accusation.  Such  a 
course  would  have  been  obvious  enough  to  anybody  but  to  John 
Quincy  Adams.  Instead  of  pursuing  it,  he  pretermits  his 
friend,  Mr.  Clay,  altogether;  pours  out  all  his  malignant  fury  on 
General  Jackson,  and  falsely  (not  to  say  meanly)  asserts  that 
Mr.  Erving's  communications  "  have  been  carefully  suppressed 
from  the  public,  and  from  any  access  to  them  by  me."  Did  he 
e  er  ask  either  myself  or  Mr  Ingersoll  for  an  inspectionof  them  ? 
Did  he  request  any  copy  of  them,  of  either  Mr.  Ingersoll  or 
myself?  How,  then,  could  he  venture  to  say  they  had  been 
suppressed  from  any  access  to  him  ? 

But  let  us  take  another  step  in  the  examination  of  this  sub- 
ject. Mr.  Adams  seems  especially  displeased  with  me  for 
a  note  which  I  caused  to  be  appended  to  General  Jackson's 
letter,  which  he  quotes  as  follows  : 

"  That  this  boundary  (the  Rio  del  Norte)  could  have  been  obtained,  was 
doubtless  the  belief  of  our  Minister  in  Spain  ;  but  the  offer  of  the  Spanish 
government  was  probably  the  Colorado — certainly  a  line  far  west  of  the 
Sabine." 

Why  he  should  have  been  so  much  disploased  with  this  note, 
is  difficult  of  explanation.  If  General  Jackson's  letter  accused 
him  of  too  much,  this  note  lessened  the  amount.     It  was,  there- 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  503 

fore,  mitigatory  in  its  purposes  and  tendency,  and  bore  no  marks 
indicative  of  a  disposition  to  assail  him.  I  had  requested  the 
opinions  of  Gen.  Jackson  on  the  subject  of  our  acquiring  a  fine 
and  noble  country.  I  wanted  these  opinions  to  rouse  up  and 
sustain  the  administration  of  Mr.  Tyler  in  making  the  attempt. 
But  no  part  of  that  purpose  was  to  prejudice  Mr.  Adams.  He 
was  not  in  all  my  thoughts.  It  is  a  little  singular,  on  this  part 
of  the  case,  that  a  distinguished  Senator  of  this  country  should 
think  my  object  was  to  ruin  Mr.  Van  Buren,  whilst  Mr.  Adams  is 
sure  it  was  to  destroy  him.  Both  gentlemen  are  equally  mista- 
ken. I  knew  General  Jackson  was  writing  in  the  absence  of  Mr. 
Erving's  communications,  after  the  lapse  of  many  years ;  and 
as  he  had  put  the  communication  at  my  disposal,  I  was  sure  that 
he  would  take  no  exception  to  any  correction  of  his  statements 
which  an  examination  of  the  papers  might  furnish.  I  looked 
into  them  sufficiently  to  be  satisfied  that  General  Jackson  was 
substantially  correct  in  reference  to  the  Erving  statements, 
with,  as  I  supposed,  one  solitary  exception;  that  was  in  his 
having  used  the  words  Rio  Grande,  instead  of  the  Colorado. 
Whether  he  had  so  mistaken  the  names,  was  not  a  matter  of 
close  examination  and  scrutiny;  it  was  enough  for  me  that  it 
seemed  somewhat  doubtful.  I  gave  the  benefit  of  that  doubt  to 
Mr.  Adams,  thereby  diminishing  the  amount  of  country  surren- 
dered, by  so  much  as  lay  beyond  the  Colorado.  Does  this  look 
as  if  I  had  joined  in  abase  conspiracy  against  an  individualJ(Mr. 
Adams)  for  as  profligate  a  public  purpose  as  appears  on  the 
pages  of  history  ?  His  perpetual  reiteration  of  complaint  on 
this  point  induces  the  belief  that  the  true  cause  of  his  displea- 
sure arises  from  the  fact  that,  by  the  correction,  I  cut  him  off 
from  the  only  quibble  on  which  he  expected  to  defend  himself 
against  either  the  charges  of  Mr.  Clay  or  General  Jackson, 
He  knew  that  he  had  made  a  bad  treaty,  when  he  might  have 
made  a  much  better  one — that  he  had  surrendered  the  whole, 
when  he  might  have  saved  at  least  two-thirds  of  that  noble 
country.  In  other  words,  that  he  had  taken  the  Sabine,  when  he 
might  certainly  have  gotten  to  the  Colorado;  and  hence  it  offends 
him  so  much  that  I  should  have  corrected  the  probable  mistake 
of  General  Jackson,  in  saying  the  Rio  Grande,  instead  of  the  Ri  o 
Colorado,  thereby  cuttinghim  off  from  all  plea  and  apology  for 


504  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

thus  sacrificing  the  South,  and  dismembering  his  country  :  For 
I  now  maintain  the  opinion  confidently,  that,  with  the  correc- 
tion of  my  note  published  with  it,  and  thereby  made  a  part  of 
it,  so  far  as  it  was  accusatory  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  statements 
made  both  by  Mr.  Clay  in  1820,  and  General  Jackson  in  1843, 
are  fully  and  substantially  sustained  by  the  communications  of 
Mr.  Erving  and  other  concurring  testimony. 

Mr.  Adams  proves  it  himself— out  of  his  own  mouth;  at 
least  under  his  own  hand  and  signature  ;  aye,  Mr.  Adams 
proves  his  own  guilt,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Forsyth.  He  says  : 
"  It  is  too  well  known,  and  they  (the  Spanish  government) 
will  not  dare  to  deny  it,  that  Mr.  Onis's  last  instructions  autho- 
rized him  to  concede  much  more  than  he  did ;  that  those 
instructions  had  been  prepared  by  Mr.  Pizarro;  that,  after  the 
appointment  of  Marquis  de  Casa  Yuijo  to  the  ministry,  they 
were  by  him  submitted  to  the  King's  Council,  and,  with  their  full 
sanction,  transmitted  to  Mr.  Onis  ;  that,  both  in  relation  to 
these  grants  of  land  in  Florida,  and  to  the  western  boundary, 
the  terms  which  he  obtained  were  far  within  the  limits  of  his 
instructions."  Now,  here  is  proof,  direct  and  positive,  covering 
the  substance  of  the  charge  against  him.  It  comes  from  under 
his  own  hand,  and  seals  his  lips  forever  against  denying  the 
charge  of  Mr.  Clay  and  General  Jackson.  He  says,  officially 
and  expressly,  that  "  both  in  relation  to  the  grants  of  lands  in 
Florida  and  the  western  boundary,  the  terms  which  he  (Don 
Onis)  obtained  were  far  within  the  limits  of  his  instructions," 
And  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  letter,  he  tells  his  constituents  at 
Boston  (who  ought  never  to  excuse  him  for  the  imposture)  that 
"when,  in  1819,1  wrote  to  Mr.  Forsyth  that  we  knew  that  Mr. 
Onis  could,  without  violating  his  instructions,  have  conceded 
more  than  he  did,  it  was  not  in  reference  to  the  western  boundary, 
but  to  the  grants  of  lands  by  the  Spanish  government."  What 
inveterate  obstinacy  !  what  unblushing  falsification  of  his  own 
letter  !  Well,  I  now  produce  the  letter.  It  says  expressly, 
"  both  in  the  grant  of  lands  and  the  wcsteim  boundary  ;"  whilst  in 
his  speech  he  declares  to  his  young  friends  at  Boston,  •'  it  was 
not  in  reference  to  the  western  boundary."  I  hold  up  both  of 
these  pictures  before  the  young  men  of  Boston ;  and,  if  they 
do  not  see  a  direct,  positive,  and  palpable  inconsistency,  not  to 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  505 

use  a  harder  term,  then  I  shall  conclude  they  are  young  indeed  ! 
This  covers  the  very  point  in  controversy.  It  is  the  very  sub- 
stance and  marrow  of  both  Mr.  Clay's  and  General  Jackson's 
charge  against  him.  Mr.  Clay  says  :  "  It  was  known  to  Mr. 
Adams  that  we  could  have  obtained  more  than  was  conveyed 
to  us  ;  that  is,  that  the  Spanish  negotiator  was  allowed  by  his 
instructions  to  grant  us  more,"  &c. 

Well,  Mr.  Adams,  being  his  own  witness,  proves  that  not 
only  did  he  know,  but  that  the  then  Spanish  Minister  knew,  and 
dare  not  deny,  the  same  fact.  Little  did  Mr.  Adams  think  that 
he  would  have  himself  to  dare  in  1844,  what  he  said  the  Span- 
ish ministry  dare  not  do  in  1820. 

But  I  will  advert  to  some  further  admissions  of  Mr.  Adams, 
of  a  most  extraordinary  character.  In  his  Boston  speech,  he 
tells  his  young  friends  that  "  the  powers,  however,  transmitted 
to  Mr.  Onis,  were  not  at  first  sufficient  to  bring  the  negotiation 
to  a  successful  close.  They  were  from  time  to  time  enlarged, 
until  Mr.  Hyde  de  Neuville,  the  French  Minister,  told  me  that 
he  had  seen  them,  and  they  were  unlimited ;  and  Onis  himself 
told  me  that  he  could  cede  all  Mexico,  but  added.  I  might  be 
well  assured  he  would  not  do  that." 

A  little  further  on,  in  the  same  speech,  Mr.  Adams  says  : 

"  Mr.  Onis  published  a  pamphlet  for  his  own  vindication,  (about  the  Flo- 
rida treaty,)  and  to  justify  himself,  took  our  ground  in  the  controversy,  and 
insisted  that  all  that  he  had  obtained  within  the  line  of  the  Rio  del  Norte, 
was  a  cession  by  the  United  States  to  Spain.  He  did  not  pretend  that  his 
instructions  would  have  warranted  him  in  conceding  more." 

Take  this  statement  of  Hyde  de  Neuville  and  of  Don  Onis, 
as  furnished  by  Mr.  Adams  himself,  and  who  can  doubt  that 
the  Spanish  government  had,  at  last,  though  reluctantly,  come 
up  in  their  instructions  to  our  own  claim  of  boundary  to  the 
Del  Norte.  De  Neuville  says  he  had  seen  them,  and  they  were 
unlimited.  Don  Onis  declared  he  could  convey  all  Mexico,  if 
he  chose  to  do  so.  Well,  in  this  connection,  let  me  now  pre- 
sent you  with  the  statement  of  James  W.  Breedlove,  Esq., 
formerly  Vice  Consul  at  New  Orleans  for  the  Republic  of  Mex- 
ico. The  statement  it  contains  is  quite  as  satisfactory  as  the 
statements  relied  on  by  Mr.  Adams  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
powers  given  to  the  Spanish  minister  : 


506       .  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

"  Washington  City,  April  9,  1844. 

"  I  was  the  Mexican  Vice  Consul  for  a  portion  of  the  years  1829,  1830  and 
1831.  In  the  course  of  the  latter  year,  Senor  Don  Martinez  arrived  at  New 
Orleans  from  Mexico,  bringing  with  him  the  commission  of  Mexican  Consul, 
and  instructions  from  the  Mexican  government  to  me,  directing  the  consu- 
late to  be  handed  over  to  him.  The  numerous  consultations  necessarily 
occurring,  brought  about  an  intimacy  between  Don  Martinez  and  myself, 
which  was  continued  up  to  the  time  that  he  was  appointed  Minister  from 
Mexico  to  this  government.  In  the  course  of  our  free  and  frequent  conver- 
sations, the  subject  of  the  Florida  treaty  of  1819  was  often  introduced.  In 
the  course  of  those  conversations,  Senor  Don  Martinez  informed  me  that  he 
was  Secretary  of  Legation  to  the  Spanish  embassy  to  this  government  at  the 
time  that  the  Chevalier  Don  Louis  De  Onis  was  the  accredited  Minister ; 
that  he  enjoyed  that  Minister's  full  confidence,  and  had  a  full  knowledge  of 
his  instructions  from  the  King,  their  master  ;  that  Don  Onis  was  instructed 
to  negotiate  a  treaty  which,  if  necessary  and  demanded,  should  fix  the  Rio 
Bravo  Del  Norte  as  the  western  boundary  line  ;  that,  in  opening  the  nego- 
tiation with  Mr.  Adams,  the  American  negotiator,  he  claimed  the  Sabine  as 
the  boundary  line,  but  without  any  expectation  of  its  being  agreed  to  ;  but, 
upon  finding  that  it  was  not  very  strenuously  objected  to  by  Mr.  Adams,  he 
pressed  the  claim  to  that  line,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  it  in  the  treaty. 
Don  Martinez  spoke  of  it  exultingly,  as  having  obtained  an  advantage  in  the 
treaty  beyond  anything  which  his  government  expected  ;  and  the  result 
was,  that  it  had  secured  a  large  and  valuable  country  which  had  fallen  into 
the  possession  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico.  These  conversations  were  fre- 
quently held,  and  were  not  considered  confidential  by  either  of  us ;  and, 
accordingly,  I  have  frequently  retailed  them  in  New  Orleans,  and  recently 
here.  Jas.  W.  Breedlove." 

Here  I  might  rest  my  defence,  and  that  of  General  Jackson, 
against  any  imputation  made  by  Mr.  Adams.  .  But  as  he  has 
in  his  speeches  declared  Gen.  Jackson's  statement  to  be  false — 
grossly,  glaringly,  and  wilfully  false,  and  that  I  knew  them  to 
be  so  when  I  published  his  letter,  I  must  beg  to  be  indulged  in 
a  further  examination  of  the  particulars  which  make  up  this 
wholesale  and  vulgar  denunciation.  He  says  they  are  false 
even  in  the  name  of  the  individual  from  whom  the  information 
is  pretended  to  be  derived.  Here  he  resorts  to  a  contemptible 
criticism  on  the  spelling  of  the  name  of  our  then  Minister  to 
Spain.  General  Jackson  writes  it  Erwin,  instead  of  Erving; 
and  this  is  made  the  foundation  of  one  of  his  charges  of  false- 
hood. But  what  would  he  think  if  I  were  to  greet  him  with  the 
vulgar  epithet  of  liar  and  slanderer,  by  telling  him  that  Mr. 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  507 

Aaron  Vail  Brown  never  did  receive  or  publish  any  letter  from 
General  Jackson  accusatory  of  him;  that  it  was  Mr.  Aaron 
Venable  Brown  ?  But  no  matter  about  that.  He  proceeds  to 
deny  that  Mr.  Erving  ever  did  make  known  to  General  Jack- 
son any  such  facts  as  his  letter  asserts  that  he  did.  Let  it  be 
borne  in  mind  that  General  Jackson  never  did  come  forward  as 
the  accuser  of  Mr.  Adams  of  dereliction  of  duty  in  negotiating 
the  Florida  treaty ;  nor  did  I  ever  present  any  letter  of  his  in 
that  light.  He  pretended,  on  the  face  of  his  letter,  only  to  give 
the  information  (from  memory)  which  he  had  received  from  our 
Minister  in  Spain.  If  that  information  was  correct,  it  was  then 
a  question  only  between  Mr.  Adams  and  him.  What  that  in- 
formation was,  has  been  concealed  neither  from  Mr.  Adams 
nor  the  public.  All  the  material  and  important  parts  of  that 
statement  appeared  during  the  last  spring  in  the  Richmond 
Enquirer,  with  comments,  over  the  signature  of  "Randolph  of 
Roanoke,"  written  by  one  of  the  most  vigorous  writers  of  the 
age.  To  these  I  must  necessarily  refer  (for  they  are  too  long 
for  insertion  here)  all  who  have  a  single  doubt  on  the  subject 
under  examination.  I  must  beg  permission,  however,  to  insert 
the  following : 

"  The  next  confirmatory  testimony  I  shall  offer,  is  that  of  Mr.  George  W. 
Erving  (the  former  Minister  to  Spain)  himself.  If  I  am  rightly  advised,  he 
indignantly  threw  up  his  commission  soon  after  he  was  apprized  of  the  terms 
of  the  treaty,  and  before  its  ratification  by  Spain,  and  was  in  Washington 
about  the  date  of  Mr.  Clay's  letter.  In  the  statement  he  afterwards  drew 
up  in  relation  to  that  treaty,  and  presented  to  General  Jackson,  he  places 
Mr.  Adams  in  a  most  unenviable  position.  From  this  document,  now  before 
me,  I  will  furnish  you  from  time  to  time  with  copious  and  pungent  extracts  ; 
but  for  the  present  I  have  only  leisure  to  quote  the  following  summary, 
which  seems  germane  enough  to  the  matter  in  hand.  Commenting  on  Mr. 
Adams's  conduct,  he  says  : 

"  '  He  had  a  distinct  proposal  from  Pizarro,'  (the  Spanish  Secretary  for 
Foreign  Affairs)  '  of  a  boundary  between  the  Sabine  and  the  Colorado.  He 
had  repeated  assurances  from  the  Minister  of  the  United  States  at  Madrid, 
of  the  earnest  disposition  of  the  Spanish  Minister  to  conclude  a  treaty  there. 
He  had  abundant  proofs  of  that  Minister's  sincerity,  and  finally  of  his  une- 
quivocal INTENTION  TO  AGREE  ON  THE  COLORADO  AS  A  BOUNDARY,  ON  THE 
TERMS  PROPOSED  BY  THE  AMERICAN  MINISTER. 

"With  all  this  before  him,  Mr.  Adams  agreed  with  Onis  on  the  Sabine  a 
a  limit,  thus  ceding  to  Spain  the  whole  of  the  territory  in  that  quarter,  which 


508  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

she  pretended  to  have  any  right  to  possess ;  ceding,  indeed,  every  inch  of 
that  territory  that  the  United  States  had  power  to  cede — since  the  territory 
as  far  as  the  Sabine  was  actually  in  possesession  of,  and  made  part  of  the 
State  of  Louisiana.' " 

Mr.  Adams,  in  his  Boston  address,  attempts  to  account  for 
the  strange  conduct  here  attributed  to  him,  by  throwing  the 
blame  on  Mr.  Monroe.  He  says  that  if  Gen.  Jackson  had  given 
an  opinion  against  the  western  boundary  as  agreed  on  in  the 
treaty,  Mr.  Monroe  would  still  have  persisted  in  making  the 
offer.  He  was  earnestly  intent  on  the  acquisition  of  the  FJori- 
das,  and  of  indemnity  for  the  spoliations,  "and  was  more  than 
indifferent  to  any  acquisition  west  of  the  Sabine."  How  strange, 
how  incredible  the  story!  Indifferent,  and  more  than  indiffer- 
ent, (hostile,  we  must  suppose,)  to  any  acquisition  west  of 
the  Sabine  !'  Why,  then,  all  that  tedious  and  protracted  nego- 
tiation with  Spain  about  it?  Why  did  he  not  instantly  com- 
mand Mr.  Erving  to  give  over  further  negotiation  about  the 
Colorado  and  the  Rio  Del  Norte,  and  close  on  the  Sabine  im- 
mediately? Nay,  more  ;  why  did  he  not  tell  Mr.  Adams,  nego- 
tiating right  at  his  door,  to  give  it  up  at  once,  falling  back  in 
his  claim  on  the  western  boundary  of  Louisiana  ?  Why,  let 
me  ask,  was  not  this  incredible  story  told  in  the  life-lime  of  Mr. 
Monroe  ? 

Mr.  Adams  had  been  accused  and  severely  censured  in  his 
life-time;  yet  Mr.  Monroe  never  stepped  forward,  with  the  no- 
ble frankness  of  his  nature,  to  relieve  his  persecuted  Secretary* 

Nay,  still  more :  such  a  defence  becomes  totally  inadmissible 
since  the  publication  of  Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll's  reply  to  the  re- 
peated assaults  of  Mr.  Adams.  In  that  reply  he  inserts  a  letter 
written  by  Mr.  Adams  to  Mr.  George  Graham,  dated  the  2d 
June,  1818 — mark  the  date,  how  nearly  to  that  of  the  treaty — 
written,  too,  by  the  order  of  Mr.  Monroe,  in  which  we  find  the 
following : 

*  The  President  wishes  you  to  proceed  with  all  convenient  sp?ed  to  that 
place,  unless,  as  is  not  improbable,  you  should,  in  the  progress  of  the  jour- 
ney, learn  that  they  have  abandoned  or  be?n  driven  from  it.  Should  they 
have  removed  to  Matagorda,  or  any  other  place  north  of  the  Rio  Bravo,  and 
within  the  territory,  claimed  by  the  United  States,  you  will  rep  »ir  thither,  with- 
out, however,  exposing  yourself  to  be  captured  by  any  Spanish  military  force. 
When  arrived,  you  will,  in  a  suitable  manner,  make  known  to  the  chief  or 


ANNEXATION  OP  TEXAS.  509 

leader  of  the  expedition  your  authority  from  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  express  the  surprise  with  which  the  President  has  seen  posses- 
sion thus  taken,  without  authority  from  the  United  States,  of  a  place  within 
their  territorial  limits,  and  upon  which  no  lawful  settlement  can  be  made  without 
their  sanction.  You  will  call  upon  h;m  explicitly  to  avow  under  what  national 
authority  they  profess  to  act,  and  take  care  that  due  warning  be  given  to  the 
whole  body  that  the  place  is  within  the  United  State?,  who  will  suffer  no  per- 
manent settlement  to  be  made  there  under  any  authority  other  than  their  own.,r 

On  this  letter,  Mr.  Ingersoll  justly  remarks  : 

"  Thus  it  appears  that  in  June,  1818,  at  the  very  time  when  the  Florida 
treaty  was  in  full  negofiation,  the  United  States  extended,  (with  all  Mr. 
Monroe':?  indifference,)  not  to  the  Sabine  only,  where  Mr.  Adams  put  a  stop 
to  them — not  only  to  the  Colorado,  where  Mr.  Erving  thinks  it  would  have 
been  easy  to  have  settled  their  limits — nor  yet  even  to  the  Bravo,  the  utter- 
most claim  of  northern  Texas  ;  but  even  north  of  it,  which  must  have  carried 
Louisiana  far  beyond  those  ancient  Santa  Fe  settlements,  of  which  Colonel 
Benton  has  spoken  so  emphatically  in  his  recent  speeches — Thomas  Hart 
Bentona,  as  Mr.  Adams,  with  precision,  denominates  that  gentleman,  some- 
what  iniected,  saith  Mr.  Adams,  with  the  thirst  for  Tex-ass,  which  has.  be- 
come an  epidemic  fever  raging  to  a  great  extent. 

"|Now,  the  argument  of  all  Mr.  Adams's  denunciation  of  General  Jack- 
son, of  Mr.  Tyler,,  of  Mr.  Polk,  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  Governor  McDuffie,  of 
Mr.  Brown,  of  Mr.  Erving,  and  of  me,  the  whole  argument  of  not  less  than 
a  volume  of  print,  the  result  of  all  his  midsummer's  night  dreams,  is  that 
the  United  States  had  no  right  to  Texas  beyond  the  Sabine;  that  they  made 
no  claim  to  Texas  to  the  Colorado;  that  they  never  dreamed  of  Texas  as  far 
as  the  Bravo;  and  that  as  to  the  Santa  Fe  settlement  on  the  north  of  that 
river,  it  would  have  been  the  grossest  injustice  and  absurdity  to  make  any 
pretension  to  them.  Mr.  Adams  has  been  in  the  habit,  I  have  understood,  of 
terming  General  Jackson  a  Tennessee  barbarian.  In  his  Braintree  philip- 
pics, the  General's  double-dealing,  imposture,  folly,  ignorance,  profligacy, 
mendacity — in  a  word,  his  villany — in  this  Texas  affair  are  painted  in  the 
blackest  colors.  He  is  called  Tiberius  Caesar,  Louis  XI  of  France,  Ferdi- 
nand the  Catholic,  of  Spain;  robber,  thief,  hickory  hero,  and  the  like;  Me- 
dusa with  a  gorgon's  head;  Ate,  hot  from  hell;  Alaric,  the  pest  of  nations; 
Attila,  the  scourge  of  God,  are  conjured  into  Adams's  jargon,  the  whole 
strain  of  elaborated  allegation,  with  what  he  pronounces  overwhelming 
proof's,  that,  as  Texas  never  did  belong  to  the  United  States,  and  never  was 
claimed  by  them,  it  was  monstrous  injustice  to  Mexico  for  General  Jackson, 
by  what  Mr.  Adams  calls  his  God-defying  villany,  to  rob  that  country  from 
Mexico;  and  it  is  monstrous  traduction  of  Mr.  Adams  for  General  Jackson 
to  express  his  astonishment  that  our  government  gave  it  up  by  the  Florida 
treaty.  General  Jackson  is  expressly  compared  by  Mr.  Adams  to  a  horse- 
thief  for  doing  so;  and  setting  forth  the  defence  of  this  horse-thief,  as  Mr* 


510  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

Adams  said  he  heard  him  make  it  in  Boston,  he  pronounces  it  a  much  better 
justification  for  stealing  the  horse  than  General  Jackson  has  for  what  Mr. 
Adams  calls  stealing  Texas  from  Mexico.     What  are  we  to  think,  then,  of 
the  statesman,  or  honest  man,  or  any  man,  who,  after  spending  a  whole 
summer,  with  his  unquestionably  superior  advantages,  and  the  best  opportu- 
nities of  making  good  his  case,  is  thus  easily  convicted,  by  the  records  of  his 
own  department,  by  a  letter  under  his  own  signature,  every  line  of  which 
bears  intrinsic  evidence  of  Mr.  Monroe's  wary  patriotism,  and  of  Mr.  Adams's 
peculiar  diplomacy?     And  what  shall  we  say  of  that  sting  at  a  benefactor 
who  warmed  him  in  his  bosom,  when  Mr.  Adams  writes  of  Mr.  Monroe  that 
he  was  more  than  indifferent  as  to  Texas — Mr.  Monroe,  whom  Mr.  Adams 
hides  behind,  to  cover  him  from  the  charge]    'Write   a  letter  of  instruc- 
tions,' said  President  Monroe  to  Secretary  Adams,  'to  Geo.  Graham,  to  hasten 
forthwith  to  Texas.     Let  him  make  his  first  stopping-place  at  Galveston, 
far  beyond  the   Sabine;  thence  let  him  follow  the  intruders   to  Matagorda, 
which  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colorado',  if  he  does  not  find  them  there,  let  him 
go  to  the  Bravo;  and  if  there,  or  at  any  other  place  to  the  north  of  it  within 
the  territory  claimed  by  the  United  States,  make  known  that  no  settlement 
can  be  made  there  without  their  sanction,  for  the  place  is  within  the  United 
States,  who  will  suffer  no  settlement  other  than  their  own.'     Is  this  the  lan- 
guage of  a  President  who  was  more  than  indifferent  as  to  Texas]     Is  this 
the  memory  Mr.  Adams  should  sully  for  want  of  patriotism]     Far  beyond  San 
Antonio,  reaching  almost  to  Matamoras  and  Monterey  in  the  south,  to  Albu- 
querque and  Santa  Fe  in   the  north,  Mr.  Monroe  insisted   that   neither 
Frenchman  nor  Spaniard,  nor  Don  Onis,  the  representative  of  the  King  of 
Spain,  nor  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  nor  Joseph  Bonaparte,  should  be  suffered 
to  put  a  foot,  nor  any  other,  without  authority  from  our  government.     Yet 
does  Mr.  Adams  not  only  take  high  umbrage  at  any  expression  of  astonish- 
ment that  he  should,  six  months  after,  have  surrendered  all  those  magnifi- 
cent regions,  but  he  denounces  as  worse  than  a  horse-thief  the  President 
who  reclaimed  them,  and  lashes  as  a  rascal  round  the  world  the  individual 
who  ventures  to  publish  Mr.  Erving's  argument,  that  at  least  as  far  as  the 
Colorado,  we  might,  by  the  Florida  treaty,  have  established  our  title  to  Texas, 
if  not  to  the  Bravo.'* 

There  is  but  one  other  topic  discussed  by  Mr.  Adams  in  these 
various  speeches  to  his  constituents,  which  I  desire  to  notice, 
and  with  that  I  shall  close  this  address.  I  allude  to  his  alle- 
gation, formerly  as  well  as  now  made,  that  the  Florida  treaty 
was  shown  to  General  Jackson,  and  that  he  approved  of  it. 
Much  has  been  said  on  this  subject  by  several  of  the  newspa- 
pers of  the  day,  particularly  by  the  Globe  and  Kendall's  Expo- 
sitor. There  is,  in  the  latter,  a  review  and  exposure  of  all  that 
Mr.  Adams  has  said  on  this  point,  so  direct  and  lucid  that  I 


ANNEXATION  OP  TEXAS,  511 

submit  it  to  your  consideration,  with  the  solitary  remark,  that 
I  have  no  faith  nor  confidence  in  the  alleged  diary  of  Mr. 
Adams.  He  did  not  and  would  not  produce  it  at  the  proper 
time,  when  everything  he  ought  to  have  held  dear  to  him 
was  at  issue.  If  genuine,  it  does  not  sustain  him;  if  a  forgery 
of  subsequent  fabrication,  it  is  another  melancholy  proof  that 
great  attainments  are  not  always  accompanied  by  virtue. 

From  Kendall's  Expositor. 

The  National  Intelligencer,  of  the  12th  instant,  contains  a  long  address 
of  John  Quincy  Adams,  delivered  "at  a  meeting  of  the  Boston  Whig  Young 
Men's  Club,  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  instant,"  defending  his  own  course 
in  the  negotiation  of  1819,  when  Texas  was  ceded  to  Spain,  and  assailing 
General  Jackson  in  no  measured  terms. 

On  its  face  this  production  bears  evidence  that  while  the  snows  which  rest 
around  the  temple  of  this  aged  man  have,  in  some  degree,  paralyzed  his  mental 
powers,  they  have  but  kindled  the  fires  of  his  malignant  heart  into  a  brighter 
flame.  .  The  diabolical  spirit  which  breathes  through  this  address,  presents 
to  the  imagination  a  hoary-headed  sinner  sinking  unrepentant  into  the  grave, 
already  beginning  to  feel  the  pangs  of  "  that  death  which  never  dies,"  and 
attempting,  with  impotent  rage,  to  hurl  back  upon  a  fortunate  rival,  whose 
success  has  been  his  disgrace,  and  whose  glory  his  shame,  a  portion  of  that 
fire  with  which  he  is  already  tormented. 

"Grossly,  glaringly,  wilfully  false. '' — Such  are  the  epithets  this  "  arch 
angel  fallen"  bestows  upon  statements  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  attempts 
to  show  it  by  counter-statements,  in  themselves  "  grossly,  glaringly,  and 
wilfully  false,"  capping  the  climax  by  proving  his  own  mendacity. 

"At  some  time  more  propitious  to  calm  consideration,"  as  Mr.  Clay  said 
when  he  promised  to  expose  Mr.  Adams's  conduct  at  Ghent,  we  may,  if  some 
one  else  does  not,  make  a  formal  reply  to  this  long-studied  and  most  wicked 
tissue  of  petty  malignity,  false  assertion  and  shameless  misrepresentation. 
For  the  present,  we  shall  content  ourself  with  proving  Mr.  Adams  a  liar  by 
his  own  testimony! 

On  the  7th  of  May,  1836,  while  a  discussion  involving  the  treaty  of  1819 
was  going  on  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  Mr.  Adams  is  thus  reported, 
viz: 

"  He  mentioned  also  another  fact :  the  present  chief  magistrate  of  the 
United  States  being  in  the  city  at  the  time,  Mr.  A.  was  directed  to  take  the 
treaty  to  him  and  ask  his  opinion  about  it,  and  it  was  approved  of  by  that 
gentleman." 

On  being  applied  to  for  information  on  the  subject,  President 

Jackson  said  he  had  no  recollection  of  having  been  consulted, 

and  thought  Mr.  Adams  must  be  under  some  mistake.     This 

was  stated  in  the  Globe.     Mr.  Adams  noticed  the  statement  in 

34 


512  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  House,  repeating  the  assertion  with  minute  particulars, 
and  with  his  own  hand  revised  the  report  of  his  remarks  for 
publication.  From  that  revised  report  we  take  the  following 
extract,  viz : 

"The  treaty  was  signed  on  the  22d  February,  1819,  and  he  presumed  it 
was  in  the  recollection  of  many  members  of  the  House,  that  Gen.  Jackson 
was  at  that  time  in  this  city,  as  that  was  the  celebrated  session  during 
which  his  proceedings  in  the  Seminole  war  were  subjects  of  deliberation  in 
both  Houses  of  Congress  ;  and  General  Jackson  was  here  during  the  con- 
sideration of  that  subject,  and  was  here  at  the  time  of  the  conclusion  of  the 
treaty. 

"  But  to  come  to  the  precise  point.  After  the  treaty  had  been  framed, 
and  ready  to  receive  the  signatures  of  the  contracting  parties,  but  befora 
there  was  any  obligation  upon  our  part  to  sign  it,  by  the  express  direction  of 
Mr.  Monroe,  he  (Mr.  A.)  took  the  treaty,  drawn  up  as  it  was,  to  General 
Jackson,  not  as  to  the  military  commander  of  the  army  of  the  United  States, 
but  as  to  a  highly  distinguished  citizen  of  the  United  States,  whom,  being 
here  at  the  time,  the  then  President  of  the  United  States  thought  proper  to 
consult  upon  a  subject  of  such  great  importance.  He  took  the  treaty  to 
him  at  his  lodgings,  which  were  in  a  house  at  that  time  kept,  he  believed 
by  Mr.  Strother.  He  took  and  delivered  that  treaty  into  the  hands  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson,  with  the  particular  request  from  Mr.  Monroe,  that  he  would 
read  it  over,  and  give  his  opinion  upon  it.  He  would  state  further,  that 
General  Jackson  kept  the  treaty  some  time,  possibly  not  more  than  one 
day,  but  he  kept  it  a  sufficient  time  to  form  a  deliberate  opinion  upon  it,  and 
that  he  (Mr.  A.)  called  upon  him  after  a  day  or  two,  and  that  he  returned 
the  treaty  with  his  approbation  of  that  particular  boundary." 

The  Globe  replied  to  this  specific  statement,  and  proved  it 
false  in  all  its  circumstances  by  the  following  testimony,  viz  : 

By  an  official  note  from  Mr.  Adams  to  the  Spanish  Minister, 
dated  13th  February,  1819,  it  was  shown  that  a  counter-pro- 
ject for  a  treaty  was  that  day  sent  to  that  Minister. 

By  an  official  note  from  Mr.  Adams  to  the  same  Minister, 
dated  19th  of  February,  1819,  it  was  proved  that,  "a  copy  of 
the  treaty,  as  definitively  drawn  up  and  acceded  to  by  the  Pres- 
ident," was  then  sent,  "  several  of  the  modifications  proposed 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  de  Onis"  having  been  agreed  to. 

By  extracts  from  the  National  Intelligencer,  dated  the  23d 
and  25th  February,  1819,  it  was  proved  that  the  treaty  was 
communicated  to  the  Senate  on  the  22d  February,  and  was 
unanimously  ratified  by  that  body. 

By  an  extract  from  the  National  Intelligencer,  it  was  proved 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  5 13 

that  General  Jackson  left  Washington  on  a  tour  to  the  North 
on  the  11th  February,  1819. 

By  extracts  from  the  Baltimore  Patriot,  Philadelphia  Frank- 
lin Gazette,  New  York  Columbian,  and  Niles'  Register,  it  was 
proved  that  he  arrived  in  Baltimore  on  the  evening  of  the  11th; 
that  he  left  Baltimore  for  Philadelphia  on  the  morning  of  the 
14th;  that  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia  on  the  evening  of  the 
15th;  that  on  the  20th  he  arrived  in  New  York;  that  on  the 
22d  he  visited  the  navy -yard  at  Brooklyn  ;  that  on  the  23d  he 
was  honored  with  a  public  dinner  inNew  York  ;  and  that  on  the 
27th  he  was  expected  in  Baltimore  on  his  return  to  Washing- 
ton, although  he  had  not  arrived  when  Niles'  article  was 
written. 

Thus  was  it  established,  beyond  controversy,  that  while  the 
treaty  was  still  passing  between  the  negotiators  in  projects 
and  counter-projects,  General  Jackson  left  the  city,  and  did 
not  return  until  it  was  agreed  upon,  reduced  to  form,  signed,  sent 
to  the  Senate,  and  ratified.  It  was  evident,  therefore,  that  Mr. 
Adams's  story,  garnished  off  with  so  many  particulars  to  make 
it  plausible,  was  a  sheer  fabrication.  He  could  never  have 
shown  the  treaty  to  General  Jackson  at  all ;  for  the  General 
was  not  at  Washington  after  it  was  put  in  form  until  it  was 
ratified. 

The  old  man  malignant,  notwithstanding  this  exposure,  per- 
sisted in  saying  that  he  was  substantially  correct,  referring  to 
his  diary  for  proof,  but  stating  that  it  was  not  in  the  city,  and 
he  could  not  then  quote  from  it. 

After  eight  years  silence,  he  has  had  the  hardihood  to  pub- 
lish extracts  from  the  diary ;  and  what  do  they  prove  ?  They 
prove,  as  clear  as  day,  his  own  reckless  fabrication  and  falsehood  ! 
Read  them : 

"  Monday,  Feb.  1, 1819. — Called  upon  the  President,  and  had  a  conver- 
sation with  him  upon  this  renewal  of  negotiation  with  the  Spanish  minister. 
There  are  various  symptoms  that,  if  we  do  come  to  an  arrangement,  there 
will  be  a  large  party  in  the  country  dissatisfied  with  our  concession  from  the 
Eio  del  Norte  to  the  Sabine,  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  desired  me  to 
see  and  converse  with  General  Jackson  on  the  subject,  and  to  ask  confi- 
dentially his  opinion." 

u  February  2,  1819. — I  called  on  General  Jackson,  and  mentioned  in 
confidence  to  him  the  state  of  the  negotiation  with  the  Spanish  minister 


514  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

and  what  we  had  offered  him  for  the  western  boundary,  and  asked  his  opinion 
of  it.  He  thought  the  friends  of  the  administration  would  be  satisfied  with 
it,  but  that  their  adversaries  would  censure  it  severely,  and  make  occasion 
for  opposition  from  it.  He  thought  even  that  it  would  bring  us  again  in 
collision  with  the  Indians,  whom  we  are  removing  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
But  as  we  had  no  map  at  hand,  I  could  not  give  him  a  precise  idea  of  the 
proposed  line,  by  mere  description,  and  he  promised  to  call  at  my  house  to- 
morrow morning  at  ten,  and  look  it  over  upon  the  map." 

February  3,  1819. — General  Jackson  came  to  my  house  this  morning, 
and  I  showed  him  the  boundary  line  which  has  been  offered  to  the  Spanish 
minister,  and  that  which  we  propose  to  offer,  upon  Melish's  map.  He  said 
there  were  many  individuals  who  would  take  exception  to  our  receding  so 
far  from  the  boundary  of  the  Rio  del  Norte,  which  we  claim  as  the  Sabine, 
and  the  enemies  of  the  administration  would  certainly  make  a  handle  of  it 
to  assail  them  ;  but  the  possession  of  the  Floridas  was  of  so  great  impor- 
tance to  the  southern  frontier  of  the  United  States,  and  so  essential  even  to 
their  safety,  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  nation  would  be  satisfied  with  the 
western  boundary,  as  we  propose,  if  we  obtain  the  Floridas.  He  showed 
me  on  the  map  the  operations  of  the  British  force  during  the  last  war,  and 
remarked  that  while  the  mouths  of  the  Florida  rivers  should  be  accessible  to 
a  foreign  naval  force,  there  would  be  no  security  for  the  southern  part  of  the 
United  States." 

Reader,  now  look  back,  and  see  what  Mr.  Adams  asserted  in 
1836. 

He  said  Gen.  Jackson  was  in  Washington  at  the  time  the 
treaty  was  concluded,  which  was  on  the  22d  February,  1819. 
The  extracts  from  his  diary  show  that  he  was  here  on  the  1st, 
2d  and  3d  of  February. 

He  asserted  that,"  by  the  direction  of  Mr.  Monroe,  he  took  the 
treaty,  DRAWN  UP  AS  IT  WAS,  to  General  Jackson,  $c.n 
The  extracts  prove  that  he  took  no  treaty  to  General  Jackson  at 
all,  and  showed  him  no  paper  concerning  it,  except  Melisli's  map ! 
He  asserted,  that  "he  took  the  treaty  to  him  at  his  lodgings, 
which  were  in  a  house  at  that  time  kept,  he  believed,  by  Mr. 
Strother."  The  extracts  prove  that  he  took  neither  treaty  nor 
paper  to  him — not  even  Melish's  map. 

He  asserted  that  "  he  took  and  delivered  that  treaty  into  the 
hands  of  General  Jackson."  The  extracts  prove  that  he  neither 
took  nor  delivered  any  such  paper,  or  any  other  paper. 

He  asserted  that  General  Jackson  kept  the  treaty  some  time— 
possibly  not  more  than  one  day;  bat  he  kept  it  a  sufficient  time 
to  form  a  deliberate  opinion  upon  it.     The  extracts  show,  that 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  515 

he  never  kept  the  treaty,  not  even   "possibly"  for  one  day. 

He  asserted,  "  he  called  upon  him  [General  Jackson]  after  a 
day  or  two.  The  extracts  show  that  General  Jackson  called 
on  Mr.  Adams. 

He  asserted  that  General  Jackson  then  lt  returned  the  treaty" 
The  extracts  prove  that  he  had  no  treaty  to  return. 

Finally,  Mr.  Adams  brings  this  tissue  of  fabrications,  shown 
to  be  such  by  his  own  evidence,  to  a  close,  by  asserting  that 
General  Jackson  "  returned  the  treaty  with  his  approbation  of 
that  particular  boundary."  The  extracts  show,  not  only  that 
this  assertion  is  not  true,  but  that  it  is  the  reverse  of  truth. 

Reader,  look  back  and  read  again  the  extracts  from  Mr.  Ad- 
ams' diary :  Is  there  a  word  in  them  approving  the  Sabine  as 
our  western  boundary?  NOT  ONE  WORD.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  makes  General  Jackson  say,  "  He  thought  even  that 
it  would  bring  us  again  in  collision  with  the  Indians  whom  we  are 
removing  west  of  the  Mississippi."  This  is  so  worded  as  to 
show  that  it  was  part  only  of  an  argument  used  by  General 
Jackson  against  that  boundary.  He  thought  "  even,"  or  he 
thought  also,  showing  that  some  other  objection  had  preceded. 
In  the  last  interview,  General  Jackson  is  made  to  discuss  the 
importance  of  Florida,  and  to  say  that,  in  case  it  were  obtain- 
ed, "  the  VAST  MAJORITY  OF  THE  NATION  would  be 
satisfied  with  the  western  boundary  as  we  propose."  Not  a  word 
as  to  HIS  being  satisfied  ;  not  a  word  showing  that  he  approv- 
ed, or  would  ever  agree,  were  he  President,  to  give  up  Texas 
even  for  Florida.  And  is  there  a  man  living  who  believes  that  he 
would? 

These  extracts,  therefore,  show  that  Mr.  Adams  was  as 
wickedly  false  in  the  main  question,  as  he  was  in  the  artful 
web  of  circumstances,  woven  out  of  his  own  imagination,  to 
give  his  assertion  point  and  weight.  His  diary  does  not  show 
that  General  Jackson  approved  the  Sabine  boundary;  but  as 
far  as  it  gives  his  individual  views  in  that  respect  at  all,  shows 
that  he  disapproved  it. 

There  is  another  circumstance  connected  with  this  transac- 
tion which  makes  us  look  upon  this  man  with  perfect  loathing. 
The  first  extract  from  his  diary  shows  that  he  was  directed  by 
President  Monroe  to  ask  General  Jackson's  opinion  "  CONFI- 


516  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

DENTIALLY."  The  second  shows  that  he  did  consult  him 
«  IN  CONFIDENCE."  He  was  the  mere  agent  of  the  Presi- 
dent, bound,  by  every  obligation  of  honor,  to  keep  in  confidence 
what  was  committed  to  him  in  confidence.  What  right  had  he 
to  put  on  his  diary  what  was  committed  to  him  by  the  Presi- 
dent in  confidence,  or  received  from  General  Jackson  in  con- 
fidence? Making  a  record  of  that  which  ought  to  have  died 
with  him  unless  disclosed  by  the  consent  of  parties,  was  itself 
a  breach  of  confidence,  and  a  betrayal  of  trust.  The  man 
who  keeps  a  "  diary"  of  confidential  communications,  or  even 
of  private  daily  conversations,  is  a  spy  upon  society,  and  a 
traitor  in  heart.  He  who  will  pencil  down  the  casual  expres- 
sions of  his  friends  and  visitors,  and  lay  them  aside,  felicitating 
himself  on  the  use  he  may  make  of  them  thereafter  for  his 
own  benefit  or  other's  injury,  is  fit  only  for  an  assassin,  and 
should  be  driven  out  of  society.  We  would  as  soon  associate 
with  one  whom  we  knew  had  a  dagger  under  his  cloak,  ready 
to  stab  us  when  he  wanted  our  purse,  and  could  get  us  by 
the  throat.  But  such  a  man  Mr.  Adams  has  proved  himself  to 
be.  Shame  to  those  who  once  made  him  President !  In  his 
"  Volumes"  of  Diary  he  has  a  store  of  daggers  for  all  who  ever 
gave  him  their  confidence  or  conversation. 

But  if  a  man  be  warranted  in  transferring  to  paper  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  him  expressly  or  implicitly,  and  thus  endan- 
ger its  exposure  by  his  death  or  other  accident,  is  he  at  liberty, 
years  afterwards,  without  the  consent  of  the.  parties  trusting 
him,  to  make  use  for  it  to  his  own  advantage?  In  this  matter, 
all  Mr.  Adams  knew  of  General  Jackson's  opinions  was,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  showing,  obtained  in  confidence.  When, 
in  1836,  he  undertook  to  speak  of  General  Jackson's  opinion, 
he  had  obtained  the  consent  of  neither  the  General  nor  Mr. 
Monroe,  releasing  him  from  his  word  of  honor,  nor  had  either 
of  them  assailed  him  so  as  to  furnish  the  pretext  of  self-de- 
fence. If,  therefore,  Mr.  Adams'  dairy  had  contained  all  he 
said  it  did,  he  would,  for  divulging  it  under  such  circumstances, 
have  been  a  traitor  to  every  principle  of  honor  held  sacred 
among  men.  But  what  measure  of  infamy  belongs  to  the  man 
who  notes  down  what  passes  in  confidence  between  him  and 
his  friends,  and  becoming  afterwards  estranged,  makes  asser- 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  517 

tions  avowedly  upon  the  faith  of  this  contemporaneous  record 
which  find  not  the  least  countenance  in  its  language  or  its  senti- 
ments?    Let  mankind   give  the  verdict,  and   faithful  history 

record  it. 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 

Washington,  D.  C,  December  14,  1844. 


THE  FLORIDA  TREATY. 
From  notes    furnished  by  God.  A.  V.  Brown. 


To  the  Editors  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer : 

Washington  City,  February  2,  1845. 
The  Florida  Treaty — General  Jackson  and  Mr.   Adams — The 

New    York    Courier   and    Enquirer — Samuel  S.  Governeur, 

Charles  J.  Inqersoll,  and  A.  V.  Brown. 

Every  intelligent  man  in  the  United  States  is  well  aware 
that  the  treaty  of  1819,  which  secured  the  Floridas  and  lost 
us  that  part  of  Louisiana  known  as  Texas,  was  negociated 
b}^  John  Quincy  Adams  as  Secretary  of  State,  on  the  part  of 
our  government,  and  Don  Louis  de  Onis,  the  envoy  of  Spain ; 
and  it  is  equally  known  by  those  who  have  investigated  closely 
the  correspondence  which  took  place  between  those  two  diplo- 
matic functionaries,  on  the  part  of  their  respective  Govern- 
ments, that  Mr.  Adams  could  have  secured  for  the  United 
States  a  much  better  treaty  than  the  one  which  was  negotiated ; 
as  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the  communication  of  Mr.  Er- 
ving  in  1829.  But,  Don  Onis,  who  was  a  man  of  great  diplo- 
matic powers,  saw  that  Mr.  Adams  was  not  very  particular  as 
to  boundary,  and  he  took  advantage  of  it,  and  secured  to 
Spain,  independent  of  other  pecuniary  advantages,  a  territory 
of  more  importance  than  the  one  she  lost.  In  the  face  of  these 
historical  reminiscences,  and  particularly  at  this  juncture,  when 
the  lost  territory  is  anxious  to  re-annex  itself  to  us,  to  secure 


t 

518  .       ,  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

to  her  citizens  that  liberty  and  independence  which  had  been 
guarantied  to  them  by  the  treaty  with  France,  and  who  had 
been  alienated  by  a  blundering  piece  of  diplomacy,  which  was 
inconsistent  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  so 
boldly  and  beautifully  asserted  by  the  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Hammett, 
in  his  speech  upon  the  question  of  annexation;  the  Hon.  John 
P.  Kennedy,  in  his  puny  efforts  to  establish  for  himself  a  repu- 
tation as  a  statesman  and  a  man  of  talents,  and  to  shield  Mr. 
Adams  from  the  imputation  of  having  lost  sight  of  the  true 
interests  of  his  country  in  that  negotiation ;  and  being  con- 
trolled by  sectional  and  geographical  feelings  rather  than 
those  which  should  belong  to  a  statesman  of  enlarged  views, 
reiterated  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Adams,  made  up  from  his  cele- 
brated diary,  which  had  been  sleeping  silently  ever  since,  that 
General  Jackson  gave  his  assent  to  the  treaty  of  Florida  before 
it  was  negotiated ;  and  that  it  was  submitted  to  him  by  Mr. 
Adams,  for  an  expression  of  opinion.  He  said,  if  the  friends  of 
Gen.  Jackson  denied  this  assertion,  the  evidence  was  in  the  pos- 
session of  one  of  the  legal  representatives  of  Mr.  Monroe's  fam- 
ily, (Samuel  S.  Governeur,)  in  a  correspondence  between  Gen. 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Monroe,  which  established  the  facts  as  stated 
by  Mr.  Adams,  and  recorded  in  his  diary.  As  a  friend  of  Gen. 
Jackson,  whose  fame  is  the  common  property  of  his  country, 
I  boldly  proclaim,  that  the  assertion  of  Hon.  Mr.  Kennedy  is  not 
warranted  by  the  facts ;  and  unless  he  establishes  what  he  as- 
serts, even  by  his  volunteer  witness,  (Samuel  S.  Governeur,) 
who  received  the  lucrative  appointment  of  Postmaster  at  New 
York  from  General  Jackson,  in  consideration  of  his  connection, 
by  marriage,  with  Mr.  Monroe,  that  he,  for  veracity,  will  be 
placed  in  the  same  category  with  Mr.  Adams  upon  this  subject. 
Upon  the  mere  ipse  dixit  of  this  Don  Quixotte,  the  New  York 
Enquirer  of  January  18th,  said  that  General  Jackson  was  in 
an  "unfortunate  dilemma,  by  denying  the  assertion  of  Mr. 
Adams,  that  he  approved  of  the  treaty  of  1819,  at  the  time  of 
its  adoption."  It  further  stated,  "that  Messrs.  Charles  J.  In- 
gersoll,  A.  V.  Brown,  and  the  Globe,  had  not  hesitated  to  ac- 
cuse Mr.  Adams  of  forgery,  in  order  to  repel  his  assertion,  sus- 
tained as  it  was  by  his  diary."  These  extracts  show  the  New 
York  Enquirer's  own  statements,  based  upon   the    authority 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  519 

of  Messrs.  Adams  and  Kennedy,  of  the  issue  between  General 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Adams.  What  is  it?  That  Gen.  Jackson 
was  consulted  before  the  presentation  of  the  treaty  to  Don 
Onis  for  his  signature,  and  that  he  approved  the  Sabine  as  the 
boundary.  General  Jackson  has  denied  emphatically  all  re- 
membrance of  the  alleged  call  of  Mr.  Adams  on  him,  or  him- 
self on  Mr.  Adams,  and  also,  that  he  ever  received  the  treaty 
or  returned  it,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Adams,  with  his  approbation 
of  that  particular  boundary.  This  issue  was  made  many 
years  ago.  In  the  course  of  the  past  year  Mr.  Adams  re- 
vived it,  and  General  Jackson  met  it,  in  his  letter  of  October 
22d,   1844,  in  the  following  language : 

"  I  say,  in  advance  of  the  review  I  shall  take  of  this  extra- 
ordinary production,  thus  heralded  before  the  public  on  the 
eve  of  the  Presidential  election,  that  the  assertion  of  my  hav- 
ing advised  the  treaty  of  1819,  is  a  barefaced  falsehood,  with- 
out the  shadow  of  proof  to  sustain  it."  &c. 

Now,  is  it  not  evident,  from  this  ready  and  unequivocal  deni- 
al made  by  General  Jackson  himself,  that  the  onus  prohandi  fell 
upon  Mr.  Adams  ?  Why,  then,  was  it  necessary  for  such  an 
automaton  as  John  P.  Kennedy  to  reiterate  it  ?  The  friends 
of  General  Jackson  call  for  the  proof  now,  while  he  is  living, 
and  Mr.  Kennedy,  with  the  aid  of  his  quandam  friend,  Samuel 
S.  Governeur,  must  produce  it.  They  think,  that  the  corres- 
pondence, alleged  to  have  taken  place  between  General  Jack- 
son and  Mr.  Monroe,  will  put  the  issue  between  General  Jack- 
son and  Mr.  Adams  forever  at  rest ;  but  they  may  rest  assured 
that  the  friends  of  General  Jackson  will  allow  no  misstatements 
of  the  issue  Mr.  Adams  has  averred,  viz  :  a  previous  consulta- 
tion, and  a  previous  approbation  of  that  particular  boundary ; 
and  to  the  support  of  this  averment,  General  Jackson  and  his 
friends  will  doubtless  hold  Mr.  Adams  and  his  friends,  in  all 
their  attempts  to  escape  from  the  "  unfortunate  dilemma"  in 
which  he  has  involved  himself,  and  I  shall  wait  for  the  prom- 
ised publication  of  General  Jackson's  letters.  I  can  readily 
imagine  how  it  should  be,  that  Mr.  Monroe  (long  after  the  sig- 
nature of  the  treaty,  and  when  Spain  was  still  hanging  out 
against  its  ratification,  and  when  there  was  considerable  oppo- 
sition to  it  here  at  home)  writing  to  General  Jackson  of  all  the 


520  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

difficulties  by  which  he  had  been  surrounded  in  its  negotiation, 
might  well  receive  responses  from  him  approbatory  of  what  he 
had  done,  under  all  the  circumstaces  of  the  case ;  but  this 
would  not  aid,  in  the  slightest  degree,  Mr.  Adams,  in  averring 
that  he  had  held  a  personal  consultation  with  General  Jackson, 
and  secured  his  previous  approbation  of  the  treaty  before  it 
was  ratified.  The  points  at  issue  are,  that  General  Jackson 
denies  positively  having  been  consulted  personally  by  Mr.  Ad- 
ams, in  relation  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty  ;  and  that  he  never 
gave  his  previous  approbation  to  it.  Here  is  the  issue,  and  Mr. 
Adams  and  his  friends,  with  the  aid  of  his  diary,  must  sustain 
it,  or  the  world  will  award  to  them  an  unenviable  position  in 
the  history  of  their  country.  General  Jackson  has  never  de- 
nied having  had  a  correspondence  and  consultation  with  Mr. 
Monroe,  but  he  denies  positively,  having  had  one  upon  the  sub- 
ject with  Mr.  Adams.  This  is  the  dispute,  and  Mr.  Adams  is 
bound  to  prove  his  assertion,  with  corroborative  testimony  to 
sustain  his  diary,  which  has  never  been  exhibited  to  the  public 
gaze.  But  when  did  General  Jackson  ever  say  or  write,  that  he 
was  dissatisfied  with  the  Florida  treaty  ab  initio  ?  Who  pre- 
tends that  he  ever  complained  of  it,  or  of  Mr.  Adams'  nego- 
tiation of  it,  until  he  received  the  communication  of  Mr.  Er- 
ving  in  1829?  That  communication  contained  a  statement 
of  facts  never  before  known  to  General  Jackson  until  its  re- 
ception. In  h»s  letter  of  1843,  to  Mr.  A.  V.  Brown,  he  expressly 
says — "I  was  filled  with  astonishment  /"  At  what  was  he  aston- 
ished? At  the  disclosures  made  to  him  in  the  communication 
of  Mr.  Erving?  Now,  here  is  the  starting  point,  as  far 
as  I'have  any  knowledge  of  the  subject,  of  General  Jackson's 
opposition  to  the  Florida  treaty.  Before  that,  he  had  learn- 
ed, no  doubt,  from  Mr.  Monroe,  the  general  course  of  the  ne- 
gotiation, and  the  difficulties  which  attended  it,  and  he  might 
have  thought  that  Mr.  Monroe  had  done  all  that  was  in  his  pow- 
er to  get  a  favorable  treaty,  and,  therefore,  may  have  expressed 
his  approbation  to  him.  But  how  vast  the  difference  in  many 
cases,  between  recommending  the  making  of  a  treaty  "  before- 
hand," and  "  acquiescing"  in  one  after  it  had  been  done,  and 
could  not  be  altered.  The  case  of  the  late  treaty  with  Great 
Britain,  in  relation  to  our  North-eastern  boundary,  is  an  apt 


NNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  521 

illustration.  How  many  Senators  thought  it  best  to  ratify  that 
treaty  after  it  had  been  made,  who  would  never  have  made  it 
themselves?  But  after  Mr.  Erving's  statements  were  made, 
General  Jackson  found  that  Spain  had  given  express  authority 
to  her  Minister  to  surrender  as  far  as  the  Colorado,  or  even 
the  Rio  Del  Norte.  He  saw,  in  the  face  of  this  express  author- 
ity, that  Mr.  Adams  had  accepted  the  Sabine,  and  he  was  filled 
"  with  astonishment,"  to  use  his  own  emphatic  language,  at 
such  a  dereliction  of  public  duty.  Now,  it  settles  nothing 
between  these  gentlemen  to  produce  General  Jackson's  letters 
to  Mr.  Monroe,  or  any  body  else,  written  after  the  treaty,  and 
before  Mr.  Erving's  communication.  Within  these  periods,  for 
aught  I  know,  General  Jackson  may  have  approved  what  had 
been  done.  I  have  had  no  communication  with  him  on  the 
subject,  and  only  judge  of  this  controversy  from  what  I  have 
seen  of  it  in  the  public  newspapers,  and  from  facts  concom- 
itant with  the  great  question  upon  which  it  originated, 

But  if  he  ever  had  so  approved  its  consummation,  it  was  for 
the  want  of  that  information  which  never  was  communicated 
to  the  Senate  or  the  public,  but  which  General  Jackson,  for  the 
first  time,  learned  from  Mr.  Erving,  our  Minister  to  Spain.  It 
is  now  well  established  by  the  correspondence  printed  by  the 
order  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  many  parts  of  the 
most  important  communications  of  Mr.  Erving  to  Mr.  Adams 
were  suppressed  by  him  and  never  went  to  the  Senate  at  all. — 
Hence,  they  were  never  known  to  the  public,  and  only  came  to 
the  knowledge  of  Gen.  Jackson,  through  Mr.  Erving's  statement. 
I  repeat,  therefore,  that  letters  from  Gen.  Jackson,  approving 
directly  or  inferentially  the  Florida  treaty,  written  after  the 
treaty  was  made  and  before  the  communication  of  Mr.  Erving 
to  General  Jackson  in  1829,  can  prove  nothing  on  the  issues 
now  pending  between  the  parties,  nor  show  anything  incon- 
sistent with  the  publications  of  Gen.  Jackson  on  the  subject. — 
The  letter  of  Mr.  Monroe  to  Gen.  Jackson,  and  his  reply,  pub- 
lished in  the  Globe  of  the  21st  January,  does  not,  in  the  least 
sustain  Mr.  Adams  in  his  assertion,  that  General  Jackson  ap- 
proved of  the  Treaty  before  its  ratification,  which  is  the  question 
in  controversy.  This  letter  is  precisely  as  I  anticipated,,  set- 
tling nothing  at  all  of  the  controversy  between  General  Jackson 


522  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

and  Mr.  Adams.     It  does  not  pretend  to  speak  or  allude  to  any 
previous  consultation  or  approbation  of  the  Treaty  by  General 
Jackson.     On  the  contrary,  it  entirely  negatives ^such  an  idea. 
Would  Mr.  Monroe  have  gone  into  all  the  details  appertaining 
thereto,  in  order  to  explain  the  circumstances  which  governed 
his  action  on  the  Treaty,  if  General  Jackson  had  been  previous- 
ly consulted  and  apprised  of  all  the  circumstances,  as  asserted 
by  Mr.  Adams  ?     Such  an  idea  is  preposterous,  and  he  may  re- 
fer in  vain  to  his  diary  to  sustain  him  in  his  present  position  be- 
fore  the  country  on  this  subject.      Mr.   Monroe's  letter  was 
dated  long  after  the  Treaty.     Spain  had  failed  to  ratify  it,  and 
the  subject  was  lying  over  for  the  future  and  farther  action  of 
the  Spanish  Cortes.     In  the  mean  time,  many  persons,  (Mr. 
Clay  and  others,)  were  insisting  on  our  taking  armed  posses- 
sion of  Florida  and  Texas,  without  farther  waiting  on  the  ac- 
tion of  Spain.     Under  these  circumstances,  Mr.  Monroe  says  to 
General  Jackson,  (  among  may  other  things, )  that  he  had  been 
decidedly  of  opinion  that  we  ought  to  be  content  with  Florida 
for  the  present,  and  until  public  opinion  in  that  quarter,  ( the 
North,)  shall  be  reconciled  to  any  farther  change.     Why  did 
Mr.  Monroe  so  express  himself  to  General  Jackson,  if  he  had 
been    consulted  by  Mr.  Adams   before   the  adoption    of  the 
treaty?     Every  thing  in  connection   with  this  subject,  taken 
together,  is  entirely  against  Mr.  Adams  and  his  diary.     Mr. 
Monroe  also  alleged  to  General  Jackson,  as  another  reason, 
why  we  ought  to  be  satisfied,  of  the  then  raging  of  the  Missouri 
question,  and  other  difficulties  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  to 
justify  his  action  and  conclusions.     Now,  General  Jackson  in 
reply  to  such  a  letter  says:  "  The  view  you  have  taken  of  the 
conduct  of  our  Government  relative  to  South  America,  {not 
Spain,)  in  my  opinion  has  been  both  just  and  proper,  and  will 
be  approved  by  nine-tenths  of  the  nation.     It  is  true,  it  has 
been  attempted  to  be  wielded  by  certain  demagogues  to  the 
injury  of  the  Administration,  but,  like  all  other  base  attempts, 
has  recoiled  on  its  author,  and  I  am  clearly  of  opinion,  that  for 
the  present  we  ought  to  be  content  writh  the  Floridas. "     Does 
this,  in  the  least,  sustain  Mr.  Adams  ?     Certainly  not,  because 
Mr.  Monroe  was  particular  in  enumerating  the  difficulties  by 
which  he  was  surrounded  to  secure  General  Jackson's  approba- 


ANNEXATION  OF  TEXAS.  523 

tion,  which  would,  if  it  had  been  previously  secured  by  Mr. 
Adams  before  the  treaty  was  ratified,  have  been  an  act  of 
supererogation  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Monroe.  The  inference  to  be 
drawn  from  this  correspondence  is,  that  General  Jackson  did 
not  know  any  thing  of  the  particulars  of  the  treaty  as  stated  by 
Mr.  Adams,  and  that  Mr.  Monroe's  object  was  to  secure  his 
support,  by  pointing  out  the  difficulties  by  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded, to  the  treaty  which  had  been  negotiated  by  Mr.  Adams 
and  de  Onis.  Here,  then,  is  the  long  threatened  disclosure 
that  was  to  settle  the  issue  between  General  Jackson  and  Mr. 
Adams  !  This,  too,  is  that  new  work  of  fiction,  {not  Horseshoe 
Robinson,)  promised  by  Mr.  John  P.  Kennedy,  in  his  speech  on 
the  Annexation  of  Texas.  If  this  is  all  they  have  to  bolster  up 
their  tottering  reputations  and  their  anti- American  feelings, 
General  Jackson  need  say  no  more — his  friends  may  rest  in 
ease,  and  Mr.  Adams  may  continue  to  gnaw  the  file  of  his  ma- 
lignity to  the  last.  ALGERNON  SYDNEY. 


SPEECH, 

In  Committee  of  the  Whole,  on  the  proposition  directing  the  Judi- 
ciary Committee  to  report  a  bill  abolishing  the  Circuit,  Chan- 
cery, and  Supreme  Courts. 


Before  commencing  his  argument,  Mr.  Brown  introduced  the 
following  resolutions,  as  containing  his  views  of  the  alterations 
which  it  was  expedient  and  proper  to  make  in  the  present  ju- 
diciary system,  which  he  moved  should  be  adopted  in  lieu  of 
those  heretofore  under  discussion. 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  expedient  to  make  the  following  alterations  in  the 
judiciary  system  of  this  State,  and  that  the  committee  on  that  subject  pre- 
pare and  report  a  bill  accordingly. 

1st.  That  a  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  should  be  elected,  who, 
with  the  three  associate  judges  thereof,  should  hold  said  court  at  three 
places  only,  to  wit :  at  Knoxville,  Nashville  and  Jackson. 

2nd.  That  the  Chancery  Court  should  be  abolished,  and  the  causes  therein 
should  be  transferred  to  the  Circuit  Courts  of  their  appropriate   counties. 

3rd.  That  the  Circuit  Judges  should  hold  three  terms  of  their  courts  an- 
nually, with  their  present  jurisdiction,  and  such  other  as  is  hereinafter 
transferred  to  them. 

4th.  That  all  jury  causes  should  be  transferred  from  the  county  to  the 
circuit  courts,  except  actions  of  debt  and  assumpsit,  founded  on  bonds,  bills, 
promissory  notes  and  liquidated  accounts  signed  by  the  party  to  be  charged 
therewith.  Such  actions  to  be  commenced  as  at  present,  but  to  be  tried  by 
the  justices  holding  the  county  court,  without  a  jury  and  without  any  de- 
claration or  other  pleadings  in  writing.  Judgment  to  be  rendered  the  first 
term  with  reasonable  stay  of  execution,  unless  good  cause  for  continuance 
be  shewn  by  affidavit.  Either  party  dissatisfied  and  desiring  a  jury  trial,  to 
be  entitled  to  an  appeal  to  the  circuit  court." 

The  Clerk  having  read  said  resolutions  at  the  table.  Mr. 
Brown   proceeded  as  follows  : 


ON  ABOLISHING  COURTS.  525 

Mr.  Chairman  :  You  will  perceive  that  the  three  first  propo- 
sitions which  I  have  just  submitted,  differ  from  those  hereto- 
fore under  discussion,  only  in   this,  that  they  do   not  contem- 
plate a  removal  of  the  present  judges  from  office.     The  system 
— the  plan — the  frame- work  of  the  courts,  is  substantially  the 
same,  the  removal  of  the  present  incumbents  constituting  the 
only  material  difference  between  the  respective  propositions. 
This  being  the  case,  I  shall  proceed  to  the  discussion  of  the 
subject,  i  trust,  with  the  same  good  temper  and  courtesy,  which 
have  heretofore  distinguished  this  debate.      The  gentlemen 
from  Smith  and  from  Rutherford,  who  opened  this  discussion, 
have  set  us  an  example,  in  this  respect,  worthy  of  our  imita- 
tion.    They  met  in  the  tournament,  shivered  their  lances  and 
retired,  with  a  gallantry  which  would  have  done  honor  to  the 
most  experienced  champions  in  the  proudest  days  of  chivalry. 
Other   gentlemen  have   followed  on  both  sides,  doing  great 
justice  to  the   subject  and  reflecting  on  themselves  and  their 
constituents  the  very  highest  credit.     But  what  are  to  be  the 
results — the  practical  effects  of  all  this  debating?     Is  it  likely 
to  terminate  in  a  mere  war  of  words — in  a   mere  personal 
struggle  for  rhetorical  ascendency?     I  do  most   sincerely  de- 
sire that  it  may  :  but  from  the  moment  of  its  commencement 
I  have  had  the  most  serious  forebodings  on  my  mind.     Have 
you  not  observed  what  profound  attention  has  been  paid  to 
this   debate — what  deep  and  breathless  anxiety  pervades  all 
who  have   witnessed  this  discussion?     Gentlemen  need  not 
imagine  that  it  is  a  mere  compliment  to  their  powers  in  de- 
bate.    J\o,  sir,  your  fellow-citizens  have  learned  that  the  in- 
dependence  of  the  judiciary,  that  main  pillar  in  our  political 
fabric,  is  about  to  be  pulled  down,  and  they  cannot  be  insensi- 
ble to  the  disastrous  consequences.     Nor  will  the  effects  of 
this  discussion  be  confined  within  these   walls;  for   we  are 
kindling  a  spark  in  this  debate,  which  will  hereafter   spread, 
and  brighten,  and  burn,  through  every  county  in  the  State. 
The  gentlemen  know  they  can  extinguish  it  now — that  they 
can  extinguish  it  in  a  moment,  if  they  choose  to   do  so.     If, 
however,  they  will  not,  let  them  remember  how  we  warned 
them — how  we  even  implored  them  not  to  break  up  the  deep 
foundations  of  social  order,  nor  visit  on  Tennessee  the  distract- 
ing scenes  of  Kentucky. 


526  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

Letus'examine  what  necessity  there  is,  granting  that  they 
have  constitutionally  the  power — what  necessity  there  is  for 
raising  and  pressing,  with  so  much  zeal,  this  delicate  and  per- 
plexing question.  The  gentleman  from  White  has  been  plea- 
sed to  represent,  in  fervid  language,  the  sufferings  of  the  peo- 
ple for  want  of  the  proposed  alterations.  He,  I  think  it  was, 
that  represented  the  country  "  as  bleeding  at  every  pore."  The 
gentleman  from  Davidson,  though  he  did  not  deal  in  such 
bloody  metaphor,  dipped  his  pencil  in  the  most  gloomy  colors, 
and  presented  us  a  picture  of  justice  "  old,  and  blind,  and  maim 
ed."  Now,  sir,  I  propose  to  throw  away  all  metaphor — -that 
being  too  much  the  language  of  poetry  and  romanee — and  to  in- 
stitute a  plain  matter  of  fact  enquiry,  whether  there  exists  any 
adequate  necessity  for  turning  all  our  judges  out  of  office. 

I  begin  with  those  of  the  Circuit  Courts,  and  of  East  Ten- 
nessee. I  ask  of  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  moun- 
tain, what  fault  do  they  find  of  Powell.  What  has  he  done  to 
justify  the  legislature  of  his  country  in  rudely  dismissing  him 
from  office?  On  this  side  we  have  often  heard  that  he  deserved 
higher  advancement  in  the  judiciary,  and  possessed  eminent 
claims  to  the  political  honors  of  the  State. 

I  will  next  inquire  as  to  judge  Scott.  What  terrible  explo- 
sion has  taken  place  in  his  circuit — what  popular  rage  is  drag- 
ging him  from  the  bench  where  he  has  so  long,  and,  as  I  thought, 
so  usefully  presided? 

The  next  in  order  is  judge  Keith.  With  him  I  have  never 
had  the  pleasure  of  an  acquaintance :  but  for  ten  years  of  pub- 
lic life,  I  have  associated  with  members  of  the  Legislature  and 
other  persons  from  his  judicial  circuit,  and  I  know  of  no  public 
officer,  who,  from  information,  occupies  a  more  enviable  station 
in  the  esteem  and  confidence  and  gratitude  of  his  country. 

Now,  sir,  having  gotten  through  with  the  East  Tennessee 
judges,  I  demand  to  know  of  their  representatives  on  this  floor, 
what  well-founded  complaints  can  be  exhibited  against  them? 
If  they  tell  me  none,  then  I  enquire  of  them  how  they  can  re- 
concile it  to  reason  or  justice,  to  their  consciences,  to  dis- 
grace those  judges  by  wantonly  turning  them  out  of  office.  It 
will  be  no  sufficient  apology  to  them  or  to  the  country  to  say 
we  intend  to  remove  that  disgrace  by  restoring  them  to  office. 


OX  ABOLISHING  COURTS.  527 

The  combinations  of  interest  and  the  resentments  of  disap- 
pointed ambition  in  a  new  election,  may  render  them  liable  to 
hazards,  to  which  it  is  cruelty  and  injustice  to  expose  them. 

I  will  next  enquire,  whether  any  necessity  exists  for  this  rash 
measure,  among  the  judges  of  the  Western  District.  Of  judge 
Hamilton  I  have  heard  no  complaint.  Of  judge  Turley  I  never 
expect  to  hear  any.  He  is  one  of  those  rare  instances  of  judge- 
making  in  Tennessee,  which  could  hardly  be  bettered. 

Judge  Haskell,  whatever  might  have  once  been  the  case, 
seems  lately  to  have  risen  in  popularity  in  his  circuit.  At 
all  events,  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  nullify  him  out  of 
office,  since  you  are  in  a  fair  way  to  do  so  in  a  much  more  con- 
stitutional manner.  I  come  now  to  speak  of  the  judges  of 
Middle  Tennessee,  and  I  begin  with  judge  Kennedy.  The  his- 
tory of  our  lives  would  show,  that  we  have  not  always  been 
friendly,  and  that  we  are  not  now  the  greatest  admirers  of  each 
other;  but,  sir,  were  he  my  greatest  enemy,  his  character  as  a 
man  and  his  reputation  as  a  judge,  shall  not  be  tarnished  with 
my  consent  by  turning  him  out  of  office.  Next,  sir,  I  will  en- 
quire, who  complains  of  judge  Humphreys?  I  know  not,  and  I 
care  not;  for  turn  him  out  when  you  may,  his  place  will  not  be 
supplied  by  an  equal.  Have  complaints  been  raised  against 
judge  Mitchell?  If  so,  let  us  take  warning  from  the  fact.  It 
goes  to  show  that  the  judge  which  you  made  in  1829  could  not 
last  until  1831,  What  assurance  then  have  gentlemen  to  of- 
fer, that  this  whole  tribe  af  judges  which  you  are  proposing  to 
make,  will  endure  until  1833?  I  have  yet  to  speak  of  judge 
Stewart  and  judge  Williams,  and  have  left  them  for  the  last,  be- 
cause I  knew  they  were  most  complained  of.  I  believe,  sir, 
that  nine-tenths  of  all  this  noise  and  clamor  against  the  judges 
may  be  traced  to  their  two  circuits.  Admit  all  this  complaint 
to  be  well  founded,  do  not  gentlemen  perceive  how  unjust  it 
would  be,  to  involve  the  other  judges  in  the  same  disgrace  with 
these  ?  Surely  that  moral  vision  must  be  clouded  that  could 
expect  the  representatives  of  the  other  nine  judges  to  commit 
an  act  so  unreasonable  and  so  indefensible.  I  will  now 
ask  the  gentlemen  from  Williams'  circuit  if  we  have  not  al- 
ready done  a  great  deal  to  relieve  them  from  the  real  or  sup- 
posed hardship  of  their  condition.  At  the  last  session  thou- 
35 


528  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

sands  were  spent  to  rid  them  of  the  evil  by  the"  direct  opera- 
tion of  an  impeachment.  When  that  failed,  a  new  circuit  was 
formed  to  lighten  their  burdens.  Beside  all  this,  in  1827,  the 
complaints  from  that  quarter  induced  the  Legislature  tu  pass  a 
law  authorizing  the  appointment  of  special  judges.  In  doing 
this  I  admit  the  provisions  of  the  constitution  were  most  prob- 
ably transcended,  but  coming  from  that  region  of  the  State, 
the  gentleman  from  White  should  have  been  the  last  to  re- 
proach us  for  the  infraction.  Sir,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
it  is  because  we  have  done  so  much,  and  shewed  such  a  dispo- 
sition to  do  every  thing  asked  for,  that  we  are  now  called  upon 
to  consummate  this  last  and  fatal  act  of  constitutional  viola- 
tion. 

As  to  judge  Stewart,  most  of  us  were  boys — some  on  this 
floor  were  scarcely  in  existence — when  he  commenced  the  la- 
bors of  the  bench.  This  flourishing  city  in  which  we  are  now  de- 
liberating on  his  overthrow,  was  then  nothing  more  than  an 
ordinary  village.  He  penetrated  the  forest,  visited  all  the  new 
counties  as  they  were  established,  and  in  log  court  houses  which 
neither  sheltered  him  from  the  rain  nor  protected  him  from  the 
cold,  administered  the  law,  "  without  sale,  denial  or  delay." 
Patient  and  persevering,  and  possessing  more  learning  than  many 
who  outstripped  him  in  the  career  of  judicial  promotion,  he  has 
been  for  twenty-two  years  the  most  virtuous,  the  most  unam- 
bitious, and  the  most  useful  of  all  our  circuit  judges.  I  will  go 
further  and  assert  to  this  committee,  that  he  has  rendered  more 
valuable  services  to  the  people  of  this  State  than  any  other 
judge  of  any  grade  or  rank  whatever.  Your  books  of  reports 
may  hand  down  to  posterity  many  names  more  honored  than 
his,  but  the  memory  of  none  will  be  more  richly  embalmed  in 
the  affections  and  gratitude  of  the  present  generation.  And 
yet  he  too  is  to  be  swept  away  by  this  modern  doctrine  of  judi- 
cial nullification !  And  for  what  ?  Because  he  has  grown  old. 
Yes,  sir,  that  is  true ;  but  let  it  be  remembered,  that  he  has 
grown  old  in  your  service.  The  infirmity  of  his  body  has  not 
impaired  a  single  faculty  of  his  mind.  I  this  day  assert  that  he 
knows  more  law  than  half  his  persecutors,  and  is  a  better  judge 
than  the  best  half  of  those  who  are  getting  ready  to  step  into 
his  slippers.     But  he  is  crippled,  withal,  and  goes  upon  crutch- 


ON  ABOLISHING  COURTS.  529 

es  !  How  did  he  become  so  ?  He  has  told  the  simple  and  af- 
fecting story  in  his  own  memorial  now  lying  on  your  table.  I 
was  in  this  city  when  the  news  of  his  unfortunate  accident  ar- 
rived; I  witnessed  the  *  anxiety  of  the  public  mind  about  his 
fate,  and  let  me  warn  gentlemen  how  they  too  rudely  pull  him 
down  from  the  bench:  forjudging  from  what  I  then  saw,  his 
downfall  may  excite  a  tide  of  popular  indignation,  deep,  power- 
ful and  overwhelming. 

I  have  often  thought,  that  there  was  something  strange  and 
unaccountable  in  the  cold  indifference,  and  even  absolute  neg- 
lect, of  the  world  toward  meritorious  and  useful  civil  officers. 
You  decree  a  triumph  to  him  who  captures  a  city — you  crown 
with  laurels  the  General  who  achieves  for  you  a  victory,  whilst 
the  judge  who  builds  up  and  perfects  your  jurisprudence  and 
administers  justice  in  its  purity  to  thousands,  lives  unrespected 
and  dies  unhonored.  For  myself  it  is  not  so  ;  for  I  would  to- 
day rear  as  proud  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  a  Haywood, 
a  Crabb,  and  a  Brown,  as  to  that  of  the  bravest  hero  that  expired 
on  the  plains  of  New  Orleans.  Holding  such  sentiments  as 
these,  I  should  be  recreant  to  honor  and  to  justice,  were  I  to 
join  in  this  crusade  against  the  judges.  Yet  I  desire  gentle- 
men, whilst  1  acquit  them  of  every  improper  motive,  to  under- 
stand distinctly  the  reasons  why  I  cannot  go  with  them. 

1st.  Because  they  do  not  substantially  change  the  system — 
they  do  not  even  give  it  a  new  dress.  It  is  called,  to  be  sure, 
a  district  court,  but  what  signifies  names?  It  is  to  be  held  by 
one  judge  as  at  present — to  be  held  at  the  same  places — to 
have  the  same  jurisdiction,  and  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
the  old  circuit  court  over  again.  I  regard  it  as  a  disguised  and 
fraudulent  bantling,  re-christened  by  the  gentlemanjfrom  Smith, 
with  the  gentlemen  from  Davidson  and  from  White  standing 
as  its  reputed  God-fathers ! 

2nd.  I  cannot  go  with  them,  because  I  do  verily  believe  we 
shall  get  worsted  in  the  exchange.  We  have  now  eight  or  nine 
good  judges  and  only  two  or  three  indifferent  ones.  I  had 
rather  stand  as  we  are,  than  risk  the  chances  of  making  mat- 
ters worse  by  attempting  to  mend  them. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  pass  over  the  proposition  in  favor  of  abol- 
ishing the  Chancery  Courts.     All  the  different  propositions 


MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

believe  contemplate  that  event.  It  is  demonstrable  that  they 
render  no  service  adequate  to  the  expense.  They  now  stand 
as  sinecure  offices,  which  ought  not  to  be  allowed  in  a  repub- 
lican country.  Such  they  must  continue  to  be,  unless  you  trans- 
fer to  them  all  equity  jurisdiction  from  the  circuit  courts.  This 
I  apprehend  the  people  will  not  consent  to,  as  they  are  too  few 
in  number  and  too  sparsely  scattered  over  the  country. 

Nor  do  I  intend  now  to  discuss  at  length  the  proposition  to 
transfer  all  jury  cases  from  the  county  to  the  circuit  court.  I 
shall  ask  of  this  committee  hereafter  a  separate  and  distinct 
consideration  of  that  branch  of  the  subject,  when  I  hope  to  be 
able  to  show,  that  such  a  transfer  will  be  greatly  serviceable  to 
both  plaintiffs  and  defendants,  and  calculated  to  lighten  the 
taxes  and  diminish  the  expenses  of  litigation  in  every  county 
in  the  State. 

I  proceed  therefore  to  consider  the  last  proposition  to  abolish 
the  present  Supreme  Court  and  to  build  up  another  on  its  ru- 
ins. This  is  your  court  of  the  highest  and  last  resort — the 
head  and  the  heart  of  your  judicial  system.  It  is  the  head,  be- 
cause from  it  all  the  subordinate  members  receive  their  direc- 
tion, and  the  heart,  because  from  it  proceeds  every  principle  of 
vitality  that  pervades  and  strengthens  the  whole.  You  may 
lop  away  one  member  after  another,  and  still  the  branchless 
trunk  would  live,  a  mutilated  monument  of  the  heedless  vio- 
lence of  the  times ;  but  when  you  have  once  laid  the  axe  to  the 
root  and  prostrated  its  majestic  trunk  on  the  ground,  all  will 
be  lost  that  rendered  life  secure  or  made  liberty  valuable. 

Let  this  committee  remember  that  no  substantial  alteration 
in  the  system  of  this  court  is  proposed.  Its  name,  its  jurisdic- 
tion, its  emoluments  are  the  same.  It  is  the  old  Supreme  Court 
in  disguise,  with  but  little  to  conceal  its  identity.  Gentlemen 
have  only  muttered  a  few  cabalistic  words,  and  the  presen 
court  has  disappeared  and  a  new  one  has  risen  in  its  place,  with 
nothing  to  distinguish  it  but  a  new  set  of  judges  !  Is  such  pre- 
tended magic  consistent  with  the  constitution  of  the  State  ? — 
The  2nd  section  of  the  5th  article  declares,  the  General  As- 
sembly shall  by  joint  ballot  of  both  houses  appoint  judges  of  the 
several  courts  of  law  and  equity,  who  shall  hold  their  respective 
offices  dicing  good  behaviour — not  so  long  as  they  may  remain 


OX  ABOLISHING  COURTS.  531 

young — not  so  long  as  they  may  be  blessed  with  eyesight — not 
so  long  as  they  may  be  popular  with  the  Assembly — but  for  and 
during  their-  good  behaviour.  Sir,  I  throw  no  peculiar  sanctity 
around  our  judges,  I  am  no  advocate  for  them  as  individuals, 
and  would  never  consent  to  keep  up  useless  or  unnecessary  offi- 
ces for  their  benefit ;  but  I  maintain  that  sccording  to  the  spirit 
and  intention  of  the  constitution,  we  have  no  right  to  abolish  a 
necessary  and  useful  office  for  the  purpose  of  getting  clear  of  ob- 
noxious incumbents.  If  the  Legislature  possess  this  right,  then 
our  judiciary  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  independent.  The 
judges  continue  in  office,  not  during  their  good  behaviour,  but 
during  the  will  and  pleasure  of  the  General  Assembly.  If  it 
were  intended  that  they  should  hold  their  offices  by  so  frail  a 
tenure  as  this,  why  so  much  caution  in  providing  for  their  re- 
moval by  impeachment?  Why  so  carefully  provide,  not  that  a 
majority,  but  that  two  thirds  of  the  Senate,  sitting  as  a  court  of 
impeachment,  should  be  necessary  to  conviction?  Now  all 
these  safe  guards  have  been  erected  in  vain,  if  the  Legi  lature 
can,  in  this  summary  way,  remove  the  judges  at  its  pleasure. 

A  precedent  for  doing  so  has  been  drawn  from  the  removal 
of  the  midnight  judges  of  the  elder  Adams.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  resemblance  between  the  cases.  The  Federal  party 
had  changed  the  system — they  had  established  a  separate  Su- 
preme Court  to  be  holden  by  a  distinct  set  of  judges,  and  to  find 
employment  for  their  favorites,  had  required  the  district  courts 
to  be  holden,  not  by  one,  but  by  a  plurality  of  judges.  The 
Republican  party,  coming  into  power  the  very  next  day,  were  of 
opinion  that  the  change  was  an  improper  and  unnecessary  one, 
and  therefore  repealed  it  at  once  and  restored  to  the  country 
the  former  system.  They  were  abolishing  useless  and  unneces- 
sary offices,  and  the  incumbents  necessarily  fell  with  them.  Be- 
sides, sir,  if  the  history  of  those  times  were  examined,  which  I 
have  not  done  for  many  years,  it  would  very  probably  be  found, 
that  no  commissions  were  ever  actually  delivered,  or  any  oath 
of  qualification  ever  administered  to  those  new  judges — how- 
ever this  may  be,  the  repeal  can  be  justified  on  the  most  cor- 
rect p>  inciplcs  without  referring  it  to  the  party  exciiements  of 
the  day.  The  repeal  of  the  old  district  court,  in  1809,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  present  Circuit  and  Supreme  Court  system 


532  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

is  also  adduced  as  a  precedent.  I  will  not  take  up  the  time  of 
this  committee  in  showing  the  total  want  of  resemblance  in  the 
two  cases.  The  whole  organization  of  the  courts  was  changed, 
and  not  the  slightest  inclination  manifested  to  wage  a  personal 
war  against  the  judges.  The  effect  of  such  a  warfare  must  al- 
ways be  disastrous,  and  if  the  doctrines  so  earnestly  advocated 
on  the  other  side  should  finally  prevail,  then  indeed  as  has  been 
said,  we  shall  find  ourselves  far  at  sea,  without  a  chart  and 
without  a  compass — every  wave  will  carry  us  further  from  safe- 
ty and  every  breeze  of  popular  commotion,  will  but  hasten  our 
destruction.  Your  judges,  standing  solitary  and  unsupported, 
are  obliged  to  be  overpowered — they  have  been  so  in  this  pre- 
sent controversy.  The  cry  of  their  destruction  has  gone  forth, 
and  to  escape  their  pursuers  they  have  fled  to  the  constitution — 
yes,  they  have  fled  to  that  as  the  city  of  refuge,  and  are  now 
standing  and  holding  to  the  horns  of  the  altar.  I  implore  gen- 
tlemen not  to  pursue  them  further,  nor  pollute  the  sanctuary 
by  staining  it  with  their  blood.  But,  sir,  I  believe  that  I  am 
imploring  in  vain;  I  believe  that  a  majority  of  this  house  is  de- 
termined to  accomplish  this  work  of  destruction.  They  have 
seized,  like  the  strong  man  of  old,  on  the  pillars  of  the  constitu- 
tion, and  are  determined  to  pull  it  down  on  our  heads.  If  it 
must  be  so,  I  will  not  fly  for  safety,  but  call  on  every  friend  to 
the  constitution  and  an  independent  judiciary,  to  stand  by  each 
other  to  the  last,  and  let  us  be  buried  in  its  ruins. 


ADDRESS, 

delivered  at  Pulaski,  by  A.  V.  Brown,  to  his  constituents  on  his 
return  from  the  called  session  of  the  Legislative  of  1832. 


Gentlemen  and  Fellow  Citizens:  I  am  induced  to  address  you 
on  the  present  occasion,  in  order  to  respond  to  the  frequent  en- 
quiries made  as  to  what  course  I  shall  probably  pursue  in  the 
next  elections.  On  my  return  from  the  Legislature,  I  disover- 
ed  that  so  many  of  my  political  friends  were  expecting  me  to 
offer  for  another  station,  that  I  came  to  the  determination  not 
to  be  again  a  candidate  for  the  General  Assembly.  Having 
communicated  this  fact  to  a  few  individuals,  I  wish  now  to  make 
a  public  declaration  of  it,  in  order  that  all  who  desire  to  become 
candidates,  may  have  early  and  fair  notice. 

In  taking  leave  of  you  as  your  representative,  I  beg  leave  to 
trespass  awhile  on  your  patience,  in  reviewing  some  of  the  most 
prominent  subjects  connected  with  my  late  service.  It  is  most 
common  for  public  men  to  address  you  on  subjects  that  lie  in 
prospective — aspiring  to  win  your  favor,  they  attempt  to  lift 
the  curtain  of  futurity,  and  to  please  your  imaginations  with  the 
brightest  visions  which  genius  and  fancy  in  their  highest  re- 
velry can  possibly  create.  I  have  no  such  splendid  prospects, 
however,  to  lay  before  you — my  business  now  is  with  the  past 
— not  the  future;  to  lay  before  your  understandings,  not  your 
passions,  a  true  and  just  account  of  all  my  conduct  as  your 
public  agent.  1  am  the  more  ready  to  render  that  account,  from 
a  deep  and  thorough  conviction,  that  during  no  period  of  my 
public  life  have  I  better  sustained  your  interest  andvmaintained 
your  rights,  than  during  the  two  last  sessions  of  the  General 
Assembly. 


534  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

The  public  acts  of  the  regular  session  have  now  been  for 
more  than  twelve  months  before  the  public  mind,  and  as  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  learn,  have  given  general  satisfaction. — 
With  but  few  if  any  exceptions  they  have  been  found  to  be 
based  on  equal  and  impartial  justice,  calculated  neither  to  pam- 
per the  rich  nor  to  oppress  the  poor — intended  for  the  benefit 
of  all,  they  confer  no  party  or  sectional  advantages,  but  look 
forward  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  whole  State.  As  to  the 
special  laws  of  that  session,  in  which  the  county  of  Giles  was 
interested,  we  presume  none  can  be  dissatisfied.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  that  session,  the  county  had  not  a  single  dollar 
in  the  way  of  public  funds,  except  what  was  raised  by  ordinary 
taxation  ;  at  its  close,  your  representatives  had  obtained  for  her 
between  12  and  $15,000.  All  remember  the  dissatisfaction 
that  then  prevailed  about  our  Agency  Bank.  Your  representa- 
tives prevailed  on  the  Legislature  to  cut  off  the  greater  part  of 
it  from  the  mother  Bank,  and  to  make  a  donation  of  it  to  the 
county  of  Giles.  Its  superintendence  was  given  to  all  the 
Justices  of  the  county,  whilst  its  direct  management  was  given 
to  Mr.  Abernathy,  an  agent,  in  whose  integrity  and  capacity  for 
such  business,  I  know  you  have  unbounded  confidence.  Beside 
this,  your  representatives  obtained  for  you  nearly  $3000  for  the 
important  purpose  of  improving  your  navigable  waters.  Both 
of  these  sums,  making  in  all  about  12  to  $15,000,  they  procured 
for  you  at  one  session.  They  made  it  absolutely  yours,  putting 
it  beyond  all  future  chances  of  being  taken  from  you.  When, 
let  me  ask,  since  1809,  when  this  county  was  first  organized, 
did  you  ever  receive  such  a  donation  as  this  ?  Never.  And  I 
will  venture  the  assertion,  that  when  the  little  prejudices  and 
the  passions  of  the  present  times  shall  have  passed  away,  and 
public  men  shall  be  judged  by  what  they  do,  by  what  they  ac- 
complish for  you,  and  not  by  the  dictates  of  party  animosity, 
this  one  donation  alone  will  hail  that  session  as  one  of  the  most 
liberal  and  useful  to  the  county  which  was  ever  holden. 

With  this  slight  reference  to  the  regular  session,  I  will  now 
pass  to  the  more  recent  and  important  events  of  the  called 
session.  Tjie  uninformed  have  sometimes  complained  that  this 
session  should  not  have  been  convened  at  all.  They  impute  it 
to  some  neglect  or  oversight  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature. 


ADDRESS.  535 

To  these,  it  is  proper  to  say,  that  such  a  session  was  unavoida- 
ble, and  that  no  talents,  however  lofty,  and  no  industry,  however 
assiduous,  could  have  rendered  it  unnecessary.  The  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  requires  a  new  census  and  a  new  ap- 
portionment of  representatives  every  ten  years.  This  law  of 
Congress,  passed  in  April,  or  May,  1832 ;  whereas  the  Legisla- 
lature  of  this  State,  having  gotten  through  with  all  its  business, 
had  adjourned  about  the  middle  of  December,  1831. 

Were  we  to  have  continued  in  session,  with  nothing  to  do 
all  that  time,  waiting  for  Congress  to  pass  that  law  ?  or  were 
we  to  be  gifted  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  and  thereby  know 
beforehand  how  many  new  representatives  we  would  be  enti- 
tled to,  and  to  lay  off  the  districts  accordingly?  Alas!  your 
representatives,  like  their  constituents,  are  but  poor  prophets, 
and  can  find  themselves  full  of  employment  in  comprehending 
the  past  and  providing  for  the  present,  without  pretending  to 
lay  claim  to  a  prescience  of  the  future  ! 

That  law  of  Congress  gave  to  Tennessee  four  additional 
members  of  that  body,  and  of  course  four  more  electors  of 
President  and  Vice  President.  In  these  alarming  times,  when 
Congress  was  engaged  on  the  great  questions  of  the  Bank,  of 
Internal  Improvement,  the  Tariff,  etc.,  were  you  willing  to  do 
without  your  full  weight  in  the  national  councils  ?  Again,  were 
you  willing  in  the  Presidential  election,  whilst  General  Jackson 
was  struggling  in  his  election  against  Henry  Clay,  the  anti- 
Masons,  the  United  States  Bank,  and  the  old  Federal  party 
in  the  bargain,  to  take  away  from  him  four  votes  in  Tennes- 
see, to  which  he  was  entitled?  No,  gentlemen — the  Governor 
knew  his  own  duty  and  your  wishes  too  well  not  to  convene 
the  Legislature  on  such  an  important  occasion.  If  he  had  not 
done  so,  he  would  have  been  denounced  from  one  end  of  the 
State  to  the  other;  and  you  yourselves  would  have  been 
amongst  the  loudest  in  his  malediction.  Liberty  is  better  than 
money,  and  the  expense  of  a  called  session  ought  not  to  weigh 
as  the  dust  in  the  balance,  when  compared  with  the  perma- 
nence and  safety  of  our  republican  institutions. 

In  his  message,  the  Governor  called  our  attention  to  the  lay- 
ing off*  of  Congressional  districts,  according  to  the  new  ap- 
portionment  of   Congress.       This  has    always    been   found    a 


536  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

troublesome  and  perplexiug  business.  I  was  in  the  Legisla- 
ture ten  years  ago,  when  the  present  system  was  formed;  I 
then  witnessed  the  difficulty  of  making  any  arrangement  which 
would  give  universal  satisfaction,  and  at  the  same  session  took 
an  early  opportunity  to  explain  to  the  committee,  most  of  whom 
had  no  experience  on  such  subjects,  the  main  source  whence 
dissatisfaction  then  arose,  and  implored  them,  as  far  as  practi- 
cable, to  avoid  such  difficulties.  I  was  opposed  to  long  dis- 
tricts, because  they  were  sure  to  create  a  struggle  amongst  the 
counties  for  the  centre- — each  anxious  to  get  a  favorable  posi- 
tion for  itself,  would  exert  every  effort  to  avoid  being  placed 
at  either  end  of  the  district.  Laying  down  this  principle,  I 
insisted,  wherever  it  was  practicable,  to  lay  off  the  districts  in 
a  triangle,  rather  than  an  oblong.  In  that  form,  no  county 
would  be  in  the  centre,  and  therefore  none  would  have  a  right 
to  complain.  Applying  these  rules  to  this  quarter  of  the  State, 
I  was  willing  to  place  Bedford,  Warren  and  Franklin,  in  one 
district;  Lincoln,  Giles  and  Maury,  in  another ;  and  then  to  give 
three  districts  to  the  west,  beginning  on  Lawrence,  etc.,  west. 
Contrary,  however,  to  this  wish,  the  committee  reported  our 
district  in  its  present  form,  I  voting  against  it  on  account  of  its 
being  longitudinal  instead  of  triangular. 

In  the  House,  whilst  the  bill  was  on  its  passage,  I  was  still 
anxious  for  Lincoln,  Giles  and  Maury  to  compose  the  district 
rather  than  the  present,  because  I  knew  Lincoln  would  be  dis- 
satisfied at  running  so  far  to  the  west,  whilst  the  small  coun- 
ties would  be  dissatisfied  at  being  connected  with  the  large  ones 
above.  Whilst,  however,  I  was  exerting  myself  to  bring  about 
a  district  composed  of  Lincoln,  Giles  and  Maury,  the  former 
made  an  effort  to  place  herself  in  the  centre,  by  taking  Frank- 
lin on  the  east,  and  Giles  on  the  west.  This  proposition  was 
directly  at  war  with  the  interest  of  both  Franklin  and  Giles, 
because  it  placed  them,  though  much  the  smallest  counties,  on 
the  outer  skirts  of  the  district,  whilst  it  placed  Lincoln  between 
seven  hundred  or  one  thousand  votes  stronger  than  either 
exactly  in  the  centre.  I  regretted  this  proposition  very  much, 
because  it  compelled  me  to  give  up  the  idea  of  Lincoln,  Giles 
and  Maury,  which  I  thought  would  give  the  least  dissatisfac- 
tion, and  in  self-defence,  to  contend  for  the  centre  for  my  own 


ADDRESS.  537 

county,  rather  than  yield  it  to  Lincoln,  in  running  the  district 
towards  the  mountains.  At  this  point,  therefore,  the  interest 
of  Giles  and  Lincoln  was  directly  at  issue  ;  1  had  tried  invaria- 
bly to  avoid  bringing  their  interest  in  conflict.  I  believed  it 
might  be  avoided  by  laying  off  a  triangular  district,  but,  when 
that  issue  was  made  by  Lincoln's  asking  the  centre  for  herself, 
I  had  no  alternative  left,  but  to  ask  it  for  you.  1  was  your 
sworn  representative;  I  had  to  act  for  Giles  and  not  for  Lin- 
coln. The  struggle  was  a  bold  and  manly  one  on  both  sides ; 
victory  sometimes  being  declared  on  one  side  and  sometimes  on 
the  other.  It  at  last  settled  down  in  your  favor,  leaving  Lin- 
coln no  more  right  to  be  dissatisfied  than  Giles  would  have 
been,  if  victory  had  been  declared  on  the  other  side.  Had  I 
been  the  representative  of  Lincoln  I  should  most  probably 
have  done  as  he  did,  but,  being  the  representative  of  Giles,  my 
sworn  duty  required  me  to  act  as  I  did.  Every  reason  that 
made  Lincoln  desire  the  centre,  made  Giles  desire  it,  and  every 
thing  which  made  Lincoln  averse  to  being  at  one  end  of  a  dis- 
trict, made  Giles  averse  to  the  same  position.  The  recollec- 
tion, however,  that  "  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift,  nor 
the  battle  to  the  strong,"  ought  to  teach  all  the  counties  of 
the  district  not  to  remember  in  unkindness  a  generous  rival- 
ship,  which  is  past,  but  to  look  forward  in  noble  emulation, 
which  can  in  future  give  the  highest  proof  of  republican  virtue 
and  patriotic  devotion  to  the  interest  and  glory  of  our  coun- 
try. 

Our  next  duty  required  is,  to  provide  for  the  election  of  elec- 
tors of  President  and  Vice  President.  The  Governor  in  his 
Message  recommended  this  as  a  favorable  period  for  the  adop- 
tion of  the  general  ticket  system.  This  recommendation  was 
published  probably  in  every  newspaper  in  the  State,  and  thou- 
sands of  copies  were  printed  and  distributed  in  every  part  of 
the  country ;  in  the  meantime  not  a  single  newspaper,  not  a 
single  letter,  was  written  to  the  members  that  I  ever  heard  of ; 
not  one  public  meeting  in  any  county  of  the  State  was  held  in 
opposition,  and  the  members  of  the  Legislature  might  well 
say,  the  general  ticket  system,  as  recommended  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, meets  with  the  general,  and,  probabJy,  universal  appro- 
bation of  the  people  ;  for  all  have  heard  it  proposed  to  us,  and 


, 


538  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

none  have  opposed  it.  The  general  ticket  system  was  there- 
fore adopted  under  the  implied  approbation  of  nearly  every 
man  in  the  State,  and  was  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote,  I 
believe,  with  the  exception,  probably,  of  one  single  member. 
Yet  strange  to  tell,  it  is  now  objected  to.  Who  of  my  coun- 
trymen were  the  first  and  loudest  to  make  complaints  ?  They 
were  the  enemies  of  Jackson  and  the  friends  of  Adams  and 
Clay.  They  made  a  huge  outcry,  and  many  plain  upright 
men,  that  were  not  of  their  party,  but  were  good  friends  to 
their  country,  not  understanding  the  subject,  and  not  knowing 
the  motives  of  the  Adams  and  Clay  men,  were  deceived  and 
carried  away  by  their  clamor.  I  stand  up  this  day  not  to  apol- 
ogize for  the  adoption  of  this  system,  but  to  justify  and  defend 
it.  Go  back  with  me  to  the  dark  and  trying  period  of  '98,  when 
the  great  battle  was  fought  between  the  Federalists  and  Re- 
publicans, in  the  election  between  old  John  Adams  and  Thom- 
as Jefferson.  What  was  it  that  lost  the  republicans  several 
votes  in  the  Southern  States  ?  It  was  not  having  adopted  the 
general  ticket ;  the  federalists  had  been  on  their  guard  and 
had  adopted  it,  whilst  the  republicans,  not  looking  into  the  mat- 
ter so  deeply,  were  taken  by  surprise  and  well  nigh  ruined  by 
it.  The  moment,  however,  that  election  was  over,  the  repub- 
licans in  the  old  States  resolved  never  to  have  such  an  advan- 
tage taken  of  them  again ;  and  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina, 
and  other  States,  instantly  adopted  the  general  ticket  system. 
Many  of  the  new  States  coming  into  the  Union  after  this  great 
struggle  did  not  know  so  much  by  experience,  and  therefore 
adopted  the  district  system.  On  reflection,  however,  they 
changed  the  plan;  and  at  the  time  of  the  last  session  there  was 
no  State  in  the  Union  that  voted  by  districts  but  Tennessee  and 
Maryland.  Maryland  has  not  changed,  because  she  has  always 
leaned  to  the  federal  side — but  Tennessee  has  always  been  on 
the  republican  side.  She  has  always  been  for  Jefferson,  Mad- 
ison, Monroe  and  Jackson ;  and  therefore  it  was  proper  she 
should  adopt  the  same  system  and  walk  in  the  same  footsteps 
with  her  republican  sisters  of  the  Union. 

Many  of  the  citizens  of  this  State,  however,  do  not  oppose 
the  adoption  of  the  system,  whilst  they  mainly  object  to  a  ticket 
having  been  made  and   recommended  to  their  consideration. 


ADDRESS-  53J> 

Many  seem  to  regard  this  as  an  abridgment  of  their  rights, 
and  speak  of  it  as  a  dangerous  assumption  of  power.  Let  it 
be  remembered,  that  this  change  was  effected  at  a  called  ses- 
sion, when  not  more  than  forty-odd  days  were  to  elapse  before 
the  election.  The  State  is  more  than  five  hundred  miles  in 
length  and  more  than  one  hundred  in  breadth.  The  new  elec- 
toral law  must  be  printed  at  Nashville  and  carried  to  the  dif- 
ferent counties  of  the  State,  and  be  re-printed  in  the  other 
newspapers  of  the  county  towns,  and  thus  sent  out  to  the  peo- 
ple, who  will  require  sometime  to  form  themselves  into  public 
assemblies,  and  nominate  those  candidates  whom  they  intend 
to  support;  these  nominations  must  then  find  their  way  through 
every  part  of  the  State,  in  time  to  be  known  every  where  be- 
fore the  election.  Now,  how  long  would  it  be  before  the 
Nashville  papers  would  reach  East  Tennessee,  and  the  law  be 
re-printed,  and  the  people  in  that  section  meet-  and  make  their 
nominations?  Then  how  long  before  these  nominations 
through  the  papers  will  be  generally  known  to  the  people  of  the 
Western  District  ?  Every  one  must  know  that  all  this  could  not 
be  done  with  any  certainty,  in  the  common  course  of  things,  in 
forty-odd  days.  If  not  done  when  the  election  came  on,  the 
people  would  all  be  in  confusion.  Those  in  East  Tennessee 
would  not  know  whom  those  in  the  Western  District  were 
voting  for  on  the  Jackson  ticket,  nor  those  in  the  West  be  ap- 
prised of  the  electors  to  be  run  in  the  East ;  and  thus  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  State,  though  aiming  to  support  the  same  good 
cause,  could  not  act  in  concert  in  the  election.  The  very 
thing  our  enemies  desired,  and  by  which  they  hoped  they 
might  have  some  chance  in  Tennessee,  and  accordingly  made 
out  a  Clay  ticket. 

Now,  fellow-citizens,  it  was  this  very  shortness  of  time;  it  was 
to  avoid  this  very  confusion  amongst  friends,  and  to  defeat 
the  hopes  and  schemes  of  our  enemies,  that  induced  us  to 
make  out  and  recommend  these  electors  to  you.  It  was  not 
to  abridge  your  rights,  but  to  enlarge  them,  by  enabling  you 
to  vote  for  fifteen,  instead  of  one  elector,  as  heretofore.  It 
was  not  to  dictate  and  compel  your  votes,  contrary  to  your 
wishes,  but  only  to  recommend  and  give  facility  and  effect  to 
those  votes  which  we  knew  you  were  determined  to  give  to 


540  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

Jackson.  The  Legislature  felt  like  too  much  was  at  stake 
in  the  election  of  that  illustrious  and  venerable  man.  to  run 
any  hazard  of  losing  the  vote  of  Tennessee  for  the  want  of 
an  electoral  ticket.  If  there  had  been  more  time  to  go  upon, 
the  members  would  not  have  thought  a  moment  of  doing  so. 
But,  when  her  enemies  were  proudly  boasting  that  New  York 
would  abandon  him,  that  South  Carolina  would  not  vote  for 
him,  and  that  even  good  old  Pennsylvania,  seduced  by  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness,  would  forget  her  ancient  affec- 
tion for  him,  your  representatives  would  have  been  traitors 
to  him,  to  you,  and  to  their  country,  not  to  have  done  all 
in  their  power  to  give  him  the  vote  of  Tennessee,  without 
even  the  possibility  of  a  failure.  He  is  a  citizen  of  Ten- 
nessee ;  he  is  proud  of  being  so ;  he  has  declared  that  his 
brightest  glory  is  identified  with  her,  and  that  wherever  he 
may  be  when  Providence  shall  be  pleased  to  call  him  from 
his  earthly  labors,  his  desires  and  his  commands  have  already 
been  given,  that  his  mortal  remains  shall  be  laid  for  repose 
in  the  bosom  of  her  soil.  I  have  looked  upon  his  grave, 
already  prepared  by  his  own  orders,  close  by  the  side  of  her, 
whom,  when  living,  he  so  much  loved,  and  whom  his  enemies 
so  much  and  so  wantonly  calumniated.  If  we  have  erred,  it 
has  been  on  the  side  of  safety ;  we  have  pursued  the  counsel 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic ;  we  have  followed  the  foot- 
steps of  the  ablest  and  the  wisest  States  of  the  Union,  and  let 
me  assure  you,  that  if  your  future  statesmen  shall  never  follow 
worse  counsels,  nor  imitate  worse  examples,  you  have  nothing 
to  fear,  your  freedom  will  be  secure  as  your  mountains,  and 
your  prosperity  as  abundant  as  your  rivers  that  roll  their 
mighty  tribute  to  the  ocean. 

Both  of  these  last  mentioned  subjects  were  brought  before 
us  by  executive  communication,  but  when  they  were  disposed 
of,  the  Legislature  was  not  willing  to  adjourn  without  bestow- 
ing the  most  serious  attention  to  the  various  memorials  of 
the  people,  in  favor  of  a  State  Bank.  These  memorials  set 
forth  the  pecuniary  distresses  of  the  country  in  the  most  feeling 
manner,  and  referring  to  the  large  amount  due  to  the  United 
States  Bank,  and  to  the  sudden  suspension  or  contraction  of 
its  accommodations,  insisted  that  the  establishment  of  a  State 


ADDRESS. 


541 


Bank,  presented  the  only  means  of  extricating  the  commu- 
nity from  its  embarrassments.     In  order  to  show  their  anxiety 
on  this  subject,  and  to  give  assistance  to  the  Legislature,  they 
had  in  many  of  the   counties  elected  delegates   to  meet   at 
Nashville,  for  the  purpose  of  consulting   and  presenting  the 
subject  in  the  most  forcible  manner  to  the  General  Assembly.  ■ 
These  delegates  presented  the  charter  of  a  Bank  on  what  was 
most  called  "the  real  estate  plan,"  new  in  its  principles  and 
complicated  in  its  details.     On  its  third  reading  in  the  Senate, 
at  a  late  period  of  the  session,  it  was  clearly  ascertained  that 
such  a  charter  could  not  pass,  and  thereupon,  the  bill  being 
withdrawn  for  amendment,  your   representatives,  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  propriety  of  having  a  Bank  of  some  descrip- 
tion, took  all  the  papers  to  their  room  and  made  out  the  char- 
ter which  finally  passed,  and  which  is  now  before  the  public  as 
a  law  of  the  land.     In  preparing  this  charter,  the  Legislature 
has  used  every  possible  care  to  avoid  the  errors  heretofore  com- 
mitted on  similar  subjects.     In  chartering  former  Banks,  there 
was  no  sufficient  safeguard  against  issuing  too  much  paper  for 
the  specie  on  hand,  nor  against  injudicious  laws  to  stockhold- 
ers, predicated  on  their  stock.     In  the  present  one,  a  provision 
is  inserted,  that  should  the  directors  violate  the  charters  in 
these  particulars,  they  shall  be  liable  in  their  individual  pro- 
perty, and  if  that  should  fail  to  repair  all  damages,  the  stock- 
holders, in  their  private  estates,  to  the  extent  of  each  one's 
stock,  are  liable  for  the  balance.     This  is  an  important  prin- 
ciple, distinguishing  this  from  all  former  charters,  and   pro- 
tecting the  people   from  the  evils   heretofore  experienced  by 
broken  banks  in  the  State.     Tennessee  has  set  the  example, 
and  if  other  States  will  follow,  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  bank 
explosions,  of  depreciated  currency,  etc.     Nor  shall  we  be  so 
often  assailed  with  the   argument  that  the  people  cannot  do 
without  a  National  Bank.     The  President,  it  is  true,  has  ve- 
toed that  Bank  ;  and  in  doing  so.  has  covered  himself  with  the 
highest  glory ;  but  unless  the  different  States,  when  they  create 
Banks,  shall  establish  them  on  the  most  safe  and  permanent 
foundations,  there  is  still  great  danger  that  this  institution  will 
yet  recover  from  its  discomfiture  and  ride  triumphant  over  the 
rights  of  the  States. 


542  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

In  relation  to  the  Senatorial  election,  about  which  my  friend 
Mr.  Field  has  just  spoken,  like  him  I  gave  my  vote  to  Maj. 
Eaton ;  not  because  his  respected  and  talented  opponents 
might  not'have  deserved  such  an  appointment,  but  because  I 
believed  that  in  voting  for  him  I  was  sustaining  the  wishes  of 
a  majority  of  those  whom  I  had  the  honor  to  represent.  I  had 
voted  for  him  in  two  former  elections,  to  the  same  office,  and 
no  complaint  was  ever  made  of  my  having  done  so.  For  ten 
years  he  had  served  as  the  Senator  of  Tennessee.  He  had 
proved  himself  worthy  of  the  high  trust.  General  Jackson 
had  taken  him  from  the  Senate,  as  I  knew,  expressly  against 
Maj.  Eaton's  repeated  objections  and  remonstrances.  In  this 
situation  he  had  been  assailed  and  persecuted  by  the  enemies 
of  the  administration,  and  with  a  bitterness,  and,  as  I  think  all 
must  admit,  to  an  extent  far  beyond  what  there  could  have 
been  any  reason  or  necessity  for.  Believing  him  to  be  a  pure 
patriot  and  a  sound  statesman,  I  felt  disposed,  by  my  vote,  to 
show  to  the  world  that  Tennessee  retained  undiminished  con- 
fidence in  him,  and  as  was  the  case  with  Hill,  Van  Buren  and 
others,  rebuke  the  enemies  of  the  administration  for  assailing 
the  President,  through  his  most  intimate  and  confidential  friends. 

There  are  other  subjects  of  importance  on  which,  as  your 
representative,  I  have  had  to  act ;  but  the  time  allotted  for  ad- 
dressing you  admonishes  me  not  to  trespass  too  long  on  your 
patience.  The  present  is  a  fearful  crisis  in  your  national  af- 
fairs ;  but  I  believe  I  can  safely  say  that  our  State  concerns  are, 
in  the  general,  in  a  safe  and  prosperous  condition.  If  I  have 
contributed  in  any  degrees  to  that  prosperity,  it  amply  com- 
pensates me  for  all  the  privations  of  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
public  service.  Tennessee  has  taken  decided  grounds  on  the 
great  question  of  nullification,  now  agitated,  and  expected 
shortly  to  disturb  the  integrity  and  union  of  the  States.  At 
this  very  moment,  the  convention  of  one  of  the  heretofore  most 
patriotic  States  of  the  Union,  is  in  session,  and  in  solemn  de- 
liberation whether  or  not  to  oppose  one  of  the  public  laws  of 
the  general  government.  None  of  us  can  doubt  but  that  they 
will  attempt  to  effect  that  fearful  and  desperate  measure.  If 
so,  and  the  powers  of  the  State  should  be  brought  in  open  re- 
sistance against  the  laws  of  Congress,  the  consequences  must 


ADDRESS.  543 

long  be  deplored  by  the  friends  of  freedom  all  over  the  world. 

Tennessee  has  uniformly  protested  against  the  oppressions 
of  the  Protective*  Tariff  system,  but  she  has  equally  raised  her 
voice  against  the  rash  and  unconstitutional  measures  proposed 
by  South  Carolina ;  she  abhors  oppression,  but  will  never  give 
up  the  Union.  She  will  cling  to  that  whilst  there  is  hope  in 
the  world  and  as  long  as  liberty  has  a  friend  upon  earth.  Let 
us,  however,  indulge  a  hope,  that  the  State  who  gave  birth  to  a 
Sumpter  and  a  Marion,  to  the  Hugers,  Rutledges,  and  Middle- 
tons  of  the  revolution,  will  not  be  the  first  to  sever  a  Union, 
reared  by  the  wisdom  and  cemented  by  the  blood  of  the  noblest 
martyrs  that  ever  lived  or  died  in  the  cause  of  freedom. 

Your  members  of  Congress,  as  national  statesmen,  must 
take  charge  of  these  high  concerns.  The  times  demand  that 
they  should  be  men  of  known  prudence,  of  acknowledged  wis- 
dom, and  Unsuspected  patriotism.  With  such  men  as  these, 
to  be  co-workers  with  your  venerable  President,  the  Republic 
may  yet  be  safe.  The  clouds  that  now  hover  dark  and  por- 
tentous over  the  Union,  may  be  dispelled,  and  our  national  ban- 
ner may  yet  wave  in  the  breeze,  with  no  star  eclipsed  and  no 
stripe  erased  from  its  majestic  folds. 
36 


LETTER 

To  the  Southwestern,  or  New  Orleans  Railroad  Convention. 


I 
I  congratulate  you  and  the  whole  country  on  the  assemblage 

of  your  honorable  body.  I  regard  it  as  a  commencement  of  a 
series  of  measures  destined  to  exert  a  most  salutary  influence 
on  our  future  destiny.  The  place  selected  is  the  proper  one 
in  all  respects,  and  the  time  eminently  propitious.  New 
Orleans  has  so  many  natural  advantages,  that  she  must  always 
be  exempt  from  much  of  the  suspicion  of  undue  selfishness,  to 
which  many  other  places  might  be  exposed.  With  or  without 
railroads,  her  majestic  river  and  its  mighty  tributaries  must 
always  supply  her  with  all  the  elements  of  boundless  wealth 
and  prosperity.  What  if  other  cities  should  occasionally  pen- 
etrate a  few  interior  valleys,  and  here  and  there  make  a  few 
encroachments  on  her  former  commerce,  the  impression  would 
be  too  slightly  felt  to  impede  her  onward  progress.  The  insig- 
nificant loss  would  be  more  than  compensated  by  the  increased 
stimulus  which  a  general  railroad  system  would  impart  to  the 
productive  energies  of  the  country. 

But  the  place  is  not  more  favorable  than  the  time  is  auspi- 
cious. The  southern  and  western  mind  in  now  ripe,  thoroughly 
ripe,  on  all  the  subjects  which  I  suppose  will  occupy  your  atten- 
tion. These,  1  expect,  will  be  chiefly  the  devising  of  a  proper 
railroad,  system  for  the  South  and  West ;  the  introduction  and 
encouragement  of  a  more  extensive  system  of  manufacturing 
*nto  the  same  region,  and  the  encouragement  of  importations 
into  our  southern  cities,  and  a  direct  trade  between  them  and 


LETTER  ON  RAILROADS,  ETC.  545 

foreign  countries.     On  all  these  subjects,  I  repeat,  the  public 
mind  is  thoroughly  ripe  for  action. 

As  to  railroads,  who  that  ever  made  one  distant  journey  by 
water,  that  did  not  prefer  dry  land  for  the  next  ?  With  or 
without  cause  for  it,  the  universal  passion  of  the  age  has  be- 
come, to  desert  the  water  and  to  fly  to  the  land — not  only  to  fly 
to  it,  but  to  fly  on  it,  at  the  rate  of  forty  or  sixty  miles  to  the 
hour.  Even  here  in  Tennessee,  we  who  have  been  heretofore 
a  patient  and  slow-moving  people,  (except  in  war  times,)  have 
been  so  quickened  up  that  nothing  but  the  iron  horse  and  the 
telegraph  will  now  do  us.  We  are  giving  a  hearty  welcome 
to  every  railroad  that  approaches  our  borders — our  legislature 
is  now  granting  charters  to  the  Louisville  and  Cincinnati  roads 
to  Nashville,  and  from  that  point  to  the  Great  Bend  of  Tennes- 
see, in  a  suitable  direction,  to  meet  with  the  New  Orleans  and 
Mobile  roads,  when  extended  to  that  river.  We  are,  in  fact, 
reaching  out  our  arms  in  every  direction,  proffering  an  affec- 
tionate embrace  to  all.  To  none  a  more  fraternal  one  than  to 
our  sister  cities  of  the  South — Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  Let 
them  come  by  their  own  ways  to  the  Tennessee  river,  a  little 
above  or  below  where  our  State-line  crosses  it,  and  where  all 
obstructions  to  navigation  will  be  avoided,  and  we  will  shake 
hands  across  the  stream  with  a  cordiality  that  shall  know  no 
discrimination.  But  our  legislature  is  not  content  with  simply 
granting  charters,  and  then  leaving  the  projects  to  linger  and 
perish,  with  no  other  than  a  mere  statutory  existence ;  she  is 
proposing  for  all  of  our  great  (or  as  the  technical  word  now  is) 
our  tidal  lines,  to  advance  to  the  companies  her  bonds  at  the 
rate  of  seven  thousand  or  eight  thousand  dollars  per  mile,  for 
the  purchase  of  iron-rails,  locomotives,  and  other  fixtures  of  the 
roads.  There  is  every  probability  that  such  liberal  provisions 
will  be  made  for  them  at  the  present  session  of  that  body. 
We  are,  therefore,  profoundly  in  earnest;  and  Tennessee  ten- 
ders to  Alabama,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi,  a  generous  rival- 
ry as  to  who  shall  first  reach  the  proposed  point  on  the  Ten- 
nessee river  with  the  roads  in  question.  I  need  not  take  time 
to  point  out  the  great  advantages  of  such  a  line  of  road  both 
to  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  The  Vicksburgh,  Jackson,  Bran- 
don, and  Montgomery  road  will  be  the  first  tributary.     In 


54 G  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

northern  Mississippi,  I  suppose  not  far  from  Jacinto,  the  Mem- 
phis and  Charleston  road  would  cross,  which  would  be  the 
second  ;  at  Nashville,  the  Chattanooga  will  be  the  third,  swol- 
len as  it  will  be  by  the  junction  at  the  latter  place  of  the 
Charleston  and  Savannah,  and  of  the  Virginia  and  East  Ten- 
nessee roads.  A  connection  between  New  Orleans  and  Mobile 
with  the  Ohio  at  Louisville  and  Cincinnati,  with  such  tributa- 
ries as  these,  must  be  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  cities  at 
their  respective  termini,  and  to  the  whole  region  of  country 
through  which  the  road  would  pass. 

But  it  ig  obvious  that  a  connection  between  Louisville  and 
Cincinnati,  however  important,  is  not  the  only  purpose  of  these 
two  southern  cities.  They  see  with  what  steadiness  of  pur- 
pose South  Carolina  and  Georgia  are  'pushing  forward  their 
road,  to  some  point  on  the  Mississippi,  at  or  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Ohio.  They  cannot  be  insensible  to  the  consequences.  If 
Charleston  is  determined  to  stand  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio, 
bidding  for  the  amazing  commerce  of  the  North-west,  New 
Orleans  and  Mobile  will  be  compelled  to  stand  there  also,  her 
rivals  and  competitors  for  the  noble  prize.  I  speak  of  com- 
petition and  rivalry,  of  course,  in  no  sense  unworthy  of  those 
enlightened  cities.  That  they  may  be  there  in  good  time  to 
secure  their  just  and  fair  proportion  of  advantages,  I  respect- 
fully beg  leave  to  make  a  few  suggestions  to  both  of  them. 

It  is  evidently  impossible  to  make  the  important  roads  con- 
templated by  them,  and  which  it  is  essential  to  each  should  be 
made,  without  a  heavy  draft  on  the  resources  of  both  cities,  and 
on  those  of  the  towns  and  people  along  the  respective  routes. 
Is  it  not,  therefore,  the  part  of  wisdom  and  just  economy  in 
both,  to  avoid  the  construction  of  parallel  and  contiguous  lines, 
such  as  would  be  two  roads  from  any  point  of  approximation 
in  Northern  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  To  avoid 
doing  so,  I  would  suggest  that  the  New  Orleans  road  from 
Jackson,  Mississippi,  to  the  Great  Bend  of  the  Tennessee, 
should  be  so  located  as  to  pass  the  point  where  the  Mobile 
road  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  crosses  the  Memphis  and  Charles- 
ton road  by  Tuscumbia.  This  point,  I  believe,  is  near  Jacinto, 
in  Mississippi.  Now,  from  that  point  to  the  Tennessee  River, 
in  order  to  form  a  connection  with  the  Louisville  and  Cincin- 


LETTER  OX  RAILROADS,  ETC.  547 

nati  road  by  Nashville,  and  from  the  same  point  north  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  a  road  might,  and  ought  to  be  constructed 
by  the  united  funds  of  both  cities,  or  of  the  companies  repre- 
senting them,  securing  by  proper  covenants  equal  rights  and 
benefits  of  every  sort  to  both.  More  especially  do  I  consider 
this  to  be  important  in  relation  to  the  road  running  north  to  the 
Ohio.  The  distance  will  not  fall  much  short  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  miles,  and  the  cost  of  its  construction  not 
much  less  than  three  millions  of  dollars.  Half  that  amount 
is  worth  saving,  and  its  division  would  lighten  the  burden  on 
both,  as  well  as  on  the  intermediate  towns  and  people  who 
might  be  called  on  to  contribute  to  its  construction.  The  sug- 
gestion is  made  with  a  full  persuasion  that  the  road  can  be 
made  by  either,  but  with  the  strong  conviction  that  the  proper 
sense  of  economy,  and  an  enlightened  comity  of  feeling,  would 
evidently  be  consulted  by  a  joint  contribution  to  it. 

I  drop  the  subject  of  railroads,  in  order  to  suggest  another 
on  which  the  South  and  West  are  looking  for  your  action  with 
the  highest  interest :  I  mean  the  encouragement  of  manufac- 
tories—manufactories generally,  but  more  especially  of  our 
great  southern  staple.  You  will  never  adjourn,  I  hope,  with- 
out making  the  strongest  appeals  to  our  capitalists,  and  espe- 
cially our  planters,  to  engage  in  them.  The  latter  can  build 
the  houses  necessary  with  their  own  hands.  Two  or  three,  or 
half  a  dozen,  can  unite  in  one  establishment.  They  can  select 
from  their  own  stock  of  slaves,  the  most  active  and  intelligent 
ones  for  operatives,  without  the  necessary  advances  in  money 
to  white  laborers.  The  cost  of  machinery,  and  the  expense  of 
one  or  two  others  of  practical  experience  to  superintend  the 
rest,  will  be  nearly  the  only  outlay  of  actual  capital  for  the 
business.  I  earnestly  desire  to  see  one-fourth  of  southern 
slave  labor  diverted  from  the  production  to  the  manufacture  of 
cotton.  One-fourth  of  such  labor  abstracted,  would  give  a 
steadiness  and  elevation  of  prices  to  the  raw  material,  which 
would  better  justify  its  cultivation. 

I  have  no  time  to  elaborate  this  view  of  the  subject;  I  but 
hint  at  it,  and  indulge  the  hope,  that  it  will  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  one  of  your  ablest  committees. 

In  relation  to  the  encouragement  of  importations  into  our 


548  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

southern  cities,  and  of  direct  trade  between  them  and  foreign 
countries,  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  suggest  anything  valuable. 
"When  the  south  shall  have  completed  a  well  digested  system 
of  internal  improvements,  connecting  the  interior  with  our 
southern  ports,  importations  will  come  of  themselves.  Ability 
to  furnish  assorted  cargoes  will  soon  attract  a  direct  trade  to 
the  full  amount  of  the  ability  of  our  southern  cities  to  accom- 
modate it.  This  theme,  also,  opens  too  wide  a  field  either  for 
my  present  time  or  for  the  patience  of  your  honorable  body. 

I  therefore  close  this  communication  with  the  most  profound 
respect  and  confident  expectation,  that  your  deliberations  will 
result  in  the  lasting  benefit  of  our  common  country. 
Very  respectfully, 

AARON  V.  BROWN. 

Nashville,  Tcnn. 


REPORT, 

In  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  in  1831 


The  Judiciary  Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  "A  bill  con- 
cerning free  persons  of  color,  and  for  other  purposes,"  have 
had  the  same  under  consideration,  and  beg  leave  to  present 
to  the  House  of  Representatives  the  following  Report : 

The  first  section  of  the  bill  provides,  that  it  shall  not  be  law- 
ful for  any  free  person  of  color,  whether  born  free  or  emanci- 
pated under  the  laws  of  any  other  State,  to  remove  him  or  her- 
self to  this  State,  to  reside  therein,  under  the  penalty  of  being 
indicted,  and,  on  conviction,  fined  in  a  sum  not  less  than  ten 
nor  more  than  fifty  dollars ;  and  moreover,  to  be  sentenced  to 
hard  labor  in  the  Penitentiary,  for  a  term  not  less  than  one  nor 
more  than  two  years.  Such  persons  not  departing  from  the 
State  immediately  after  their  discharge,  to  be  confined  in  said 
Penitentiary  a  period  double  the  longest  term  before  men- 
tioned ;  but  not  to  be  liable  for  any  further  pecuniary  fine.  The 
second  section  provides,  that  every  such  free  person  of  color, 
who  shall  have  removed  to  this  State  within  twelve  months  next 
before  the  passage  of  this  act,  shall  be  required  to  enter  into 
bond  with  two  or  more  good  and  sufficient  freehold  securities, 
within  six  months  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  conditioned 
that  they  will  demean  themselves  in  a  peaceable  and  orderly 
manner,  and  they  will  do  all  in  their  power  to  maintain 
the  public  peace  and  quiet  under  the  same  penalty  as  pre- 
scribed in  the  first  section  of  the  act,  with  a  proviso,  ex- 
cepting free  persons  of  color  who  are  indented  servants  and 
apprentices.     The  third  section  prescribes,  that  any  free  per- 


550  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

sons  of  color,  now  in  this  State,  and  who  have  not  emigrated  to 
it  within  twelve  months  before  the  passage  of  this  act,  (as  men- 
tioned in  the  second  section)  on  complaint  made,  that  such  free 
persons  of  color  fail  to  conduct  themselves  as  peaceable  and 
orderly  persons,  or  attempt  to  excite  a  spirit  of  insubordination 
amongst  slaves,  or  other  free  persons  of  color,  or  that  they  are 
generally  suspected  of  such  conduct,  they  may  be  brought  by 
warrant  before  three  justices  at  the  court  house  of  the  county, 
and  compelled,  if  thought  guilty,  to  enter  into  a  bond,  payable 
to  the  chairman  of  the  county  court  conditioned  as  in  the  second 
section.  And  if  such  justices  shall  believe  from  the  particular 
case  made  out,  that  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  State  requires 
it,  said  bond  may  be  further  conditioned,  that  they  shall  within 
a  reasonable  time,  to  be  fixed  by  the  justices,  depart  from  the 
State. 

The  fourth  section  provides,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  from  and 
after  the  passage  of  this  act,  for  any  court  to  order,  or  any 
owner  or  owners  of  slaves  to  emancipate  them,  but  on  the  ex- 
press condition  that  they  shall  be  immediately  removed  from 
this  State :  and  if  they  should  return,  the  bond  required  to  be 
given  shall  be  recoverable  and  they  sold  as  slaves. 

The  fifth  section  requires  the  act  to  be  given  in  charge  by 
the  judges  and  the  attorney  generals  at  every  term,  and  the 
latter  empowered  to  require  information  on  oath  of  all  sheriffs, 
coroners,  constables  and  other  persons,  so  as  to  be  enabled  to 
carry  this  act  into  effect. 

Your  Committee  regard  with  the  deepest  concern  those  re- 
cent events  in  other  States,  which  have  rendered  prohibitory 
legislation  like  this,  indispensably  necessary  to  the  repose  and 
safety  of  the  country.  They  indulge  in  no  sentiments  of  hos- 
tility against  this  unfortunate  portion  of  their  fellow-creatures, 
and  would  most  willingly,  if  in  their  power,  diminish,  rather 
than  add  a  single  drop  to  their  cup  of  bitterness  and  affliction. 
The  necessity  for  their  prohibition  on  our  part,  and  the  incon- 
veniences to  which  it  exposes  them,  is  one  of  the  evils  of  that 
system  of  slavery,  which  the  cupidity  of  other  generations 
have  entailed  upon  us,  and  which  neither  the  wisdom  nor  pa- 
triotism of  modern  times  has  yet  been  able  to  remedy.  Prior 
to  the  Revolution,  no  entreaty  nor  remonstrance  could  induce 


LEGISLATIVE  REPORT.       «  551 

the  crown  of  Great  Britain  to  interpose  its  authority  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  slave  trade :  The  royal  negative  was  perpetually 
imposed  on  every  effort  of  the  Colonial  legislatures  to  prohibit 
a  commerce  utterly  inconsistent  with  all  the  suggestions  of 
justice  and  humanity.  Hence  it  was  that  our  enemies  took 
occasion  to  reproach  us  in  our  struggle  for  independence  for 
imposing  slavery  on  those  who  differed  with  us  in  complexion , 
whilst  we  were  offering  up  our  vows  at  the  shrine  of  liberty, 
and  sacrificing  hacatombs  on  her  altars.  A  proud  vindication 
of  our  common  country,  against  such  opprobrium,  maybe  read 
in  the  energy  and  promptness  with  which  that  nefarious  traffic 
in  human  flesh  was  abolished,  so  soon  as  our  National  Inde- 
pendence was  secured.  The  people  of  the  Southern  States, 
where  slavery  is  still  permitted,  may  also  exhibit  a  vindication 
against  their  accusers,  not  less  triumphant,  in  the  gradual  im- 
provements and  humane  amendments,  which  have  been  ef- 
fected in  their  criminal  and  civil  jurisprudence  respecting 
slaves. 

In  every  Southern  State,  the  most  decided  disposition  has 
been  clearly  manifested  to  ameliorate  their  condition,  as  far 
as  the  safety  and  the  most  moderate  profits  of  the  master  will 
admit.  Experience  has,  however,  clearly  shown,  that  the  as- 
sociation of  slaves  with  free  persons  of  color,  has  a  decided 
tendency  to  increase  in  them  habits  of  idleness  and  insubordi- 
nation; hence,  masters  are  often  compelled  to  resort  to  rigorous 
and  coercive  measures,  bordering  closely  on  cruelty,  in  order 
to  obviate  the  effects  of  such  associations. 

The  free  colored  population  of  Tennessee  is  already  consi- 
derable, and  their  exclusion  from  some  States  and  probable 
expulsion  from  others,  must  throw  upon  the  State,  unless  she 
resort  to  the  most  energetic  means  of  prevention,  an  alarming 
number  of  the  most  vicious  and  profligate,  which  the  insurrec- 
tionary times  can  furnish.  Many  honorable  exceptions  could 
no  doubt  be  made,  but  in  the  general,  the  free  colored  popula- 
tion of  all  the  States  are  the  most  vicious  and  dangerous — 
deprived  of  many  privileges,  which  it  were  unwise  as  well  as 
unsafe  to  bestow  on  them,  whilst  they  remain  amongst  us,  they 
lose  most  of  the  ordinary  incentives  to  industry  and  virtue. 
They  are  excluded  from  all  equality  of  association  with  the 


552  miscellaneous  docdmexts. 

whites,  and  very  naturally  betake  themselves  to  their  own  color, 
intermarrying  with  slaves  and  becoming  dangerous  by  encour- 
aging insubordination  and  revolt.     Disaffected  slaves  resort  to 
their  habitations  in  the  night,  when  no  vigilence  of  the  master 
can  prevent  them,  where  they  can  secretly  plot  and  devise  the 
means  of  robbery,  murder  and  insurrection.     Several  of  the 
States  have  already  excluded  them  from  coming  into  their  bor- 
ders, and  it  is  understood  that  others  intend  shortly  to  legislate 
with  a  view  to  similar  prohibition,  so  that  Tennessee  may  be 
regarded  as  acting  defensively  only,  in  thus  guarding  against  a 
species  of  population  at  once  degraded,  vicious  and  dangerous. 
Urgent,  however,  as  is  the  necessity,  and  manifest  as  the  policy 
of  such  legislation  maybe,  still  it  is  proper  carefully  to  exam- 
ine  the  constitutional   power  and  authority  of  this  General 
Assembly  to  exclude  this  class  of  persons  from  emigrating  to 
the  State.     The  question  seems  to  have  been  once  raised  in 
South  Carolina,  but  we  have  had  no  access  to  documents  show- 
ing whether  any  judicial  determination  was  ever  made  upon 
it.     In   1822,  a  conspiracy  was  entered  into  by  the  slaves  of 
Charleston,  to  destroy  the  city  and  massacre  its  inhabitants. 
Free  persons  of  color  were  believed  to  be  the  chief  instigators 
of  the  measure ;  and    although  it  was  discovered  beforehand 
and  resulted  in  the  capital  punishment  of  about  thirty  of  the 
offenders,  it  gave  rise  to  new  legislation  by  the  Assembly  of 
that  State  in  the  following  December.     A  law  was  passed  pro- 
viding that  if  vessels  should  enter  their  ports  either  from  ano- 
ther State  or  a  foreign  government,  having  on  board  any  free 
persons  of  color  as  part  of  their  crew,  such  persons  of  color 
.were  to  be  seized  and  confined  until  the  departure  of  the  vessel, 
when  the  Captain  was  required  to   take  them  away  and  pay 
the  expenses  of  their  detention.     On  his  neglect,  he  was  lia- 
ble to  two  months  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  one  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  persons  so  left  were  to  be  sold  for  slaves.     In 
the  following  year,  the  Marmion,  a  British  vessel,  arrived  in 
the  port  of  Charleston,  when  four  of  her  crew,  being  persons 
of  the  description  specified  in  the  act,  were  taken  and  impri- 
soned by  virtue  of  its  provisions.     These  proceedings  were  the 
subject  of  a  spirited  remonstrance  from  the  British  Minister, 
and  it  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  the  then  Attorney 


LEGISLATIVE  REPORT.  553 

General  of  the  United  States,  that  the  act  was  incompatible 
both  with  the  Constitution  and  existing  treaties  with  Great 
Britain.  See  Perkins'  Historical  Sketches  of  the  U.  States, 
page  300.  South  Carolina,  however,  resisted  all  applications 
for  a  repeal  or  modification  of  the  statute,  and  it  is  believed 
yet  to  stand  unaltered  in  her  statute  book.  Her  Executive  and 
Legislature  seemed  alike  determined  to  persevere  in  the  mea- 
sure, and  the  Senate  passed  a  resolve  "that  they  have  carefully 
considered  the  documents  transmitted  to  them,  relating  to  the 
laws  regulating  the  ingress  of  free  persons  of  color,  and  can 
as  yet  perceive  no  departure  from  the  duties  or  rights  of  this 
State  or  of  the  United  States  in  that  law."  The  unconstitu- 
tionality alluded  to  by  the  Attorney  General  in  this  case,  might 
have  been  founded  on  existing  treaties  between  the  two  coun- 
tries regulating  their  commerce ;  and  the  right  of  the  State  to 
regulate  the  crews  or  description  of  seamen  which  Great  Britain 
might  employ  whilst  her  vessels  were  in  our  ports,  would  be  a 
question  materially  different  from  the  one  now  under  consider- 
ation. Here  the  question  relates,  not  to  a  temporary  sojourn, 
but  a  permanent  settlement  and  residence,  the  acquisition  of 
citizenship  in  the  State,  which  it  is  perfectly  competent  for  each 
State  to  regulate,  unless  an  express  provision  of  the  National 
Constitution  can  be  adduced,  inhibiting  the  exercise  of  such 
power.  The  right  of  the  citizen  to  remove  from  one  State  to 
another,  seems  not  to  be  founded  on  any  particular  constitu- 
tional provision.  No  clause  conferring  it  in  express  terms  is  to 
be  found  in  the  present  Constitution  or  in  the  Articles  of  Con- 
federation which  preceded  it.  It  is  conceived,  therefore,  to  ex* 
ist  on  the  single  principle  of  national  citizenship.  As  citizens 
of  the  Union,  we  should  be  regarded  as  everywhere  at  home, 
enjoying  all  the  privileges  which  such  citizenship  can  confer, 
derivative  from  the  general  Constitution  and  laws  :  Still,  howe- 
ver, as  the  local  sovereignties  continued  to  exist  for  all  domes- 
tic purposes,  and  as  they  would  have  a  right  to  act  on  a  great 
many  rights  and  immunities  of  their  own  citizens,  with  which 
the  General  Government  could  have  no  participation,  it  became 
necessary  to  stipulate  for  the  privileges,  which  should  be  en- 
joyed as  State  citizens,  when  convenience  or  necessity  might 
induce  us  to  depart  from  one  State  and  take  up  our  residence 


554  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

in  another.  Hence,  the  first  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the 
Constitution  has  provided  "that  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall 
be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  several 
States."  It  cannot  escape  notice,  that  no  definition  of  the  na- 
ture and  rights  of  citizens,  appears  in  the  Constitution.  The 
descriptive  term  is  used,  with  a  plain  indication  that  its  mean- 
ing is  understood  by  all ;  and  this  indeed  is  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  whole  instrument.  Except  in  one  instance  it  gives 
no  definitions,  but  it  acts  in  all  parts  on  qualities  and  relations 
supposed  to  be  already  known.  SeeRavvle  on  the  Constitution, 
85,  61.  What  then  is  the  meaning  of  the  term  citizen,  so  often 
used  in  the  Constitution  ?  The  President  must  be  a  natural  born 
citizen — a  Senator  must  have  been  nine  years  a  citizen — a  Re-' 
presentative  a  citizen  seven  years,  etc.  The  term,  when  com- 
monly used  by  political  writers,  means  all  those  who  owe  alle- 
giance and  receive  correspondent  protection  from  the  govern- 
ment, and  who  have  an  unqualified  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  society,  except  when  those  rights 
are  suspended  for  a  time,  in  consequence  of  the  commission  of 
crimes.  Now,  if  an  unqualified  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  all 
those  privileges  be  the  criterion  of  citizenship,  it  will  be  easily 
perceived  that  free  persons  of  color,  chiefly,  residing  in  the 
Southern  States,  were  not  intended  to  be  included:  as  such  by 
the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  There  are  three  degrees  of 
slavery — political,  civil  and  domestic.  The  first  existed  in 
America  before  the  revolution,  the  last  now  exists  in  relation 
to  our  slaves,  whilst  civil  slavery  is  the  condition  of  free  ne- 
groes and  mulattoes,  whose  civil  incapacities  are  almost  as  nu- 
merous as  the  civil  rights  of  our  free  citizens.  These  civil  in- 
capacities, at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  no 
doubt  varied  in  the  different  States,  greater  and  more  numer- 
ous in  some  than  in  others.  Still,  in  no  one  State  whatever, 
did  they  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  white  men  :  They  were  for- 
bidden from  intermarrying  with  the  whites  ;  they  could  not  pre- 
side as  judges,  nor  serve  as  jurors,  nor  give  evidence  against 
white  men.  In  but  few  were  they  entitled  to  suffrage  of  any 
kind,  or  capable  of  filling  any  office  whatever.  Now,  wTho  can 
believe  that  the  framers  of  the  C  onstitution  intended  to  exalt 
persons,  subject  to  so  many  disabilities  in  the   several  States, 


LEGISLATIVE  REPORT.  555 

into  Presidents,  and  Senators,  and  Representatives.  Who  can 
believe,  with  the  slightest  knowledge  and  remembrance  of 
these  times,  that  the  convention  intended  to  sweep  away  all  the 
laws  of  the  several  States  and  impose  on  the  citizens  thereof, 
terms  of  equality  in  rights  and  civil  associations,  equally  for- 
bidden by  the  difference  of  color  and  the  confirmed  habits  of 
nearly  a  whole  country?  Such  a  construction  of  the  term 
citizen  is  forbidden  by  the  fact,  that  for  more  than  fifty  years 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  same  disabilities 
have  been  continued,  with  such  alterations  only  as  the  State 
Legislatures  from  time  to  time  have  thought  proper  to  make. 
The  plain  and  obvious  use  of  the  term  should  therefore,  as  we 
conceive,  be  confined  to  the  free  white  population  of  the  United 
States,  whose  rights  and  liberties  were  everywhere  the  same — 
subject  to  no  stint  or  limitation  whatsoever.  Still,  however,  it 
is  not  intended,  nor  necessary  to  assert,  that  free  persons  of 
color  are  in  no  respect  to  be  considered  as  citizens  of  the  Gen- 
eral Government.  If  carried  away  into  captivity  by  a  foreign 
enemy,  or  illegally  impressed  on  the  high  seas,  the  Government 
would  have  a  right  to  demand  them.  If  the  scanty  rights  al- 
ready secured  to  them  should  ever  be  violated,  the  judicial 
tribunals  of  the  States,  as  well  as  those  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment, in  a  case  where  it  could  take  jurisdiction,  should  be 
bound  to  give  them  relief.  All  that  is  meant  to  be  asserted^ 
on  this  subject  is,  that  they  are  not  meant  by,  nor  included  as 
citizens,  under  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  secures  to 
each  the  rights  and  immunities  of  the  several  States.  Besides 
what  has  been  heretofore  urged,  it  may  be  further  added,  that 
the  term  citizen,  in  this  clause,  and  many  other  parts  of  the 
Constitution,  seems  to  be  used  only  in  opposition  to  the  word 
alien,  and  that  its  only  meaning  was  to  prevent  the  several 
States  from  establishing  systems  of  naturalization  for  them- 
selves different  from  that  of  the  General  Government. 

In  ordinary  cases,  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  constitutionality 
of  our  power  should  withhold  our  enactments ;  but  in  such  a 
one  as  this,  where  self-preservation  is  the  supreme  and  para- 
mount law  of  nature,  nothing  short  of  a  direct  and  manifest 
infraction  of  that  sacred  instrument  should  induce  us  to  with- 
hold that  protection  and  safety  so  imperiously  demanded  by 


556  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  indications  of  the  times.  ^'It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the 
State  to  guard  against  insubordination  and  insurrection,  and 
to  control  and  regulate  any  course  which  might  excite  or  pro- 
duce it,  as  to  guard  against  any  other  evil,  political  or  physical. 

If  a  generous  philanthropy  should  enquire,  where  this  unfor- 
tunate race  shall  find  a  home  when  all  the  States  shall  have 
excluded  and  driven  them  out,  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety, with  the  probable  co-operation  of  the  government,  will 
point  to  Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia,  as  the  future  residence  of 
this  devoted  people. 

Under  a  review  of  the  whole  subject,  your  committee  beg 
leave  to"recommend  the  passage  of  the  bill,  with  certain  amend- 
ments to  its  provisions,  to  be  designated  by  their  Chairman. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

A.  V.  BROWN,  Chairman. 


AN  ARGUMENT, 
Against  Capital  punishments,  reported  by  order  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  in  support  of  a  hill  abolishing  such  punishments  as 
to  all  free  persons  in  the  State  of  Tennessee. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Vanity  itself,  however  great,  could  hardly  induce  us  to  ex- 
pect to  supersede  the  labors  of  Montesquieu,  Rush,  Beccaria 
and  many  others,  against  the  improper  infliction  of  capital 
punishments.  We  must  entirely  mistake  the  foundation  of 
our  own  learning,  and,  in  a  good  degree,  the  sources  of  our 
own  humane  and  benevolent  feelings,  were  we  not  to  admit  to 
the  fullest  extent,  the  high  claims  of  those  distinguished  and 
eloquent  advocates  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  They  have, 
however,  in  writing  on  many  other  subjects,  condensed,  their 
views  and  arguments  on  this  one,  into  the  small  compass  of  a 
single  chapter,  without  taking  time  to  enlarge,  illustrate  and 
enforce  it.  This  brevity  has  no  doubt  arisen  from  a  conviction, 
that  errors  accumulated  through  so  many  generations,  and 
supported  by  so  many  passions  of  the  human  heart,  could 
never  be  overturned.  Results,  though  they  have  not  realized 
all  the  hopes  of  the  benevolent,  have,  by  no  means,  correspond- 
ed with  their  despondence.  Next  to  the  general  diffusion  of 
knowledge,  and  the  wide  extension  of  religious  principles,  th* 
enlightened  humanity  of  the  age  is  to  be  attributed  to  their 
generous  exertions.  They  planted  the  root  of  that  tree  whose 
blossom  is  now  so  pleasant  to  look  upon,  but  whose  full  matu- 
rity must  be  expected  at  some  future  period. 

If,  in  making  this  further  effort  in  behalf  of  the  few  against 


5*8  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  many — of  the  weak  and  the  oppressed  against  the  mighty, 
should  this  argument  fail  to  add  anything  valuable,  we  will 
not  so  much  regret  our  want  of  success  in  writing,  as  we  will 
long  deplore  the  infatuation  of  society,  in  continuing  to  shed 
the  blood  of  so  many  human  beings.  We  do  not  aim  entirely 
at  originality ;  our  sole  object  being  to  reform  society  in  its 
habits  of  thinking  and  feeling  on  this  important  subject,  every 
thing  we  have  either  read  or  heard,  which  is  considered  valua- 
ble, will  be  brought  forward  and  insisted  on ;  hence,  it  should 
be  regarded  more  as  a  mere  compilation,  than  an  original  pro- 
duction. 

If  men  were  like  the  trees  of  the  forest,  that  die  and  fall  and 
return  to  dust  again,  or,  if  after  death  they  vanish  into  eternal 
insensibility  as  though  they  had  never  been,  we  would  not 
thus  earnestly  complain  of  their  destruction.  The  toils  and 
perplexities  of  life  would  then  often  make  it  desirable  to  return 
to  that  gross  element  out  of  which  chance  or  destiny  had  form- 
ed them. 

He  who  would  pierce  their  clay  tenement  with  a  dagger,  or 
destroy  it  with  a  pistol,  would  often  perform  the  highest  act  of 
kindness  and  love.  But  their  souls  are  immortal,  their  spirits 
have  been  despatched  by  the  great  father  of  spirits  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  earth ;  their  happiness  or  misery  through  eternity, 
depends  on  their  moral  state  or  condition  when  leaving  the 
world.  Who  shall  say  when  that  pilgrimage  shall  close  ?  Shall 
poor  mortal  man,  himself  a  pilgrim,  shuddering  every  moment 
of  his  life  at  the  dreadful  accountability  which  awaits  his  own 
soul,  shall  he  fix  the  awful  period  when  the  spirit  of  his  frail 
brother-child  of  the  dust,  shall  return  to  him  who  gave  it  ? — 
Surely  He,  and  He  alone,  knows  best  when  to  recall  them,  who 
sent  them  forth,  and  whose  high  purposes  they  were  intended 
to  accomplish.  The  responsibility  of  extinguishing  human 
life,  is  the  greatest  that  can  be  incurred  on  this  side  of  eternity. 
Thi3  responsibility  may  be  parcelled  out  amongst  so  many  in- 
dividuals— the  Legislators,  the  judges  and  jurors  of  the  country, 
that  none  may  be  able  to  feel  and  realize  its  full  weight ;  yet 
all  should  remember  that  it  still  continues  to  exist  somewhere; 
and  that  every  drop  of  human  blood,  wrongfully  shed,  will  con- 
tinue to  cry  from  the  ground  like  Abel's,  until  Heaven  shall 


ON  CAPITAL   PUNISHMENT.  559 

avenge  it.  To  the  law-makers,  however,  of  every  govern- 
ment, this  enquiry  is  chiefly  addressed.  They  constitute  the 
fountain  whence  the  streams  of  bitterness  and  death  begin  to 
flow.  All  the  errors  of  judges,  the  ignorance  of  jurors  and 
corruptions  of  witnesses,  are,  in  some  sort,  chargeable  on  them, 
for  attempting  to  usurp  the  high  prerogative  of  Heaven,  and 
then  delegating  it  to  such  frail  and  imperfect  instruments  of 
mortality.  The  enactment  of  bad  laws  by  the  sovereign,  is 
probably  worse  than  the  violation  of  good  ones  by  the  subject; 
because  the  first  is  supposed  to  act  with  deliberation,  and  with- 
out any  extraordinary  inducement  to  do  wrong,  whilst  the 
second  is  often  the  victim  of  some  sudden  and  overwhelming 
passion,  which  it  was  scarcely  possible  for  his  nature  to  resist. 

"  Mercy  to  him  that  shews  it  is  the  rule, 
******** 

And  he  that  shews  none  being  ripe  in  years 
And  conscious  of  the  outrage  he  commits, 
Shall  seek  it  and  not  find  it  in  his  turn." — [Coioper. 


THE  ARGUMENT. 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    HUMAN    LAWS. 


The  world  has  been  much  amused  with  a  variety  of  inge- 
nious conjectures  about  the  original  condition  of  mankind  : — 
whether  it  was  a  social,  or5iwhat  writers  have  commonly  called, 
a  state  of  nature.  The  Poets  of  antiquity  have  often  alluded 
to  the  latter  state,  and  by  their  golden,  silver  and  iron  ages, 
illustrated  their  opinions  of  it.  Historians  and  moralists  also, 
abandoning  their  search  after  facts,  have  sometimes  wandered 
far  into  the  regions  of  imagination,  and  submitted  many  wild 
suppositions,  instead  of  the  sober  realities  of  truth.  Among 
the  writers  who  have  attempted  to  distinguish,  in  the  human 
character,  its  original  qualities,  and  to  point  out  the  limits  be- 
tween nature  and  art,  some  have  represented  mankind  in  their 
first  condition,  as  possessed  of  mere  animal  sensibility,  without 
any  exercise  of  the  faculties  that  render  them  superior  to  the 
brutes — without  any  political  union,  without  any  means  of 
explaining  their  sentiments,  and  even  without  possessing  any 

of  the  apprehensions  and  passions,  which  the  voice  and  the 
37 


560  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

gesture  are  so  well  fitted  to  express.  Others -have  made  the 
state  of  nature  to  consist  in  perpetual  wars,  kindled  by  com- 
petition for  dominion  and  interest,  where  every  individual  had 
a  separate  quarrel  with  his  kind,  and  where  the  presence  of  a 
fellow  creature  was  a  signal  for  battle.* 

From  both  of  these  conditions,  mankind  have  been  supposed 
to  have  emerged,  and  to  have  formed  societies  from  a  great 
variety  of  motives, — their  fears,  their  affections,  their  interests, 
and  in  fact,  their  almost  erery  well  ascertained  motive  of  ac- 
tion has  been  given  by  some  one  or  other  of  these  writers,  as 
their  inducement  for  forming  a  regular  system  of  political 
government. 

Against  all  these  theories,  in  whieh  imagination  has  been 
substituted  for  reality,  and  the  provinces  of  reason  and  poetry 
strangely  confounded,  the  history  of  man,  as  given  in  the  Bible, 
should  have  been  considered  as  conclusive.  In  that  history, 
more  authentic  than  all  others,  he  is  represented  to  have  been 
created  in  a  social  state  : — "  male  and  female  created  he  them." 
The  increase  and  extension  of  the  first  society,  its  manners, 
occupations  and  laws  are  there  given,  with  a  minuteness  and 
clearness  that  dissipate  at  once  all  the  hypothesis  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking.  At  the  period  when  the  blood  of  Abel 
was  made  to  stream  around  the  simple  altar  of  his  devotion, 
settlements  had  been  extended  to  the  land  whence  his  mur- 
derer was  banished.  The  decendants  of  Cain  built  up  cities, 
resided  in  tents,  became  artificers  in  brass  and  in  iron,  and 
handled  the  harp  and  the  organ. 

The  first  society  of  all,  planted  in  a  place  wholly  devoted  to 
the  worship  of  God,  needed  no  human  legislation.  Its  happy 
members,  two  only  in  number,  holding  sweet  and  constant 
communication  with  their  divine  Creator,  knew  of  no  law 
necessary  to  their  being,  save  a  single  prohibition.  It  was  not 
until  all  the  blooms  of  Paradise  had  withered,  and  the  flaming 
sword  of  the  cherubim  had  been  planted  on  its  gates,  that  the 
restraints  of  human  laws  became  necessary.  Over  the  first 
family  the  father  was  the  natural  protector  and  law-giver,  and 
became  so  for  his  wife,  by  the  express  direction  of  the  Almighty, 

*Furguson  on  civ.  society. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  561 

in  the  malediction  pronounced  on  Eve,  "  eris  rub  potestatem 
tui  viriP  It  is  hardly  probable  that  the  authority  of  the  first 
parent  continued  over  his  decendants  during  the  long  period  of 
his  life,  which  exceeded  nine  hundred  years,  since  in  that  time 
the  population  of  the  world  exceeded  several  millions,  and  was 
no  doubt  scattered  over  an  immense  space  of  country.  Did 
his  authority  extend  over  his  own  children  during  that  period, 
and  they  in  their  turn,  become  the4law-gi  vers  for  their  children  ? 
Or  did  it  cease  on  their  arrival  at  maturity,  or  whenever  they 
left  the  domicil  of  their  father  ? 

Reason  would  suggest  the  latter  as  the  proper  period  for 
the  termination  of  parental  authority,  and  it  is  certain  that  it 
must  have  been  a  very  slender  government  which  Adam  could 
have  exercised  over  Cain,  after  he  had  been  driven  to  the  land 
of  Nod.  In  this  view  of  the  subject,  the  first  societies  consist- 
ed of  families,  and  the  first  governments  were  patriarchal. 
When,  however,  a  number  of  families,  from  the  ties  of  kindred, 
from  desire  of  gain,  from  a  sense  of  individual  weakness,  or 
other  motive  whatsoever,  became  associated  into  one  political 
compact,  all  patriarchal  authority  having  terminated,  they  evi- 
dently had,  and,  no  doubt,  exercised  the  right  of  establishing 
the  principles  of  their  association,  restricted  only  by  the  para- 
mount laws  of  the  Deity.  These  principles  might  all  be  deter- 
mined at  once  by  express  stipulation,  or  be  the  result  of  long 
continued  usage  founded  on  the  implied  assent  of  the  different 
members  of  society.  The  same  rights  attach  to  every  govern- 
ment or  association  of  men  down  to  the  present  day.  They 
extend  to  the  acquisition  and  protection  of  property,  of  repu- 
tation, of  public  liberty,  and  indeed,  to  all  the  lawful  objects 
of  political  association.  The  conditions  or  terms  on  which 
these  associations  are  formed  constitute  their  laws,  and  consist 
in  the  voluntary  sacrifice  or  surrender  of  a  certain  portion  of 
individual  rights  for  the  greater  security  and  enjoyment  of  the 
balance.  Every  individual  would  choose  to  put  into  the  public 
stock  the  smallest  portion  possible, — as  much  only  as  was  suf- 
ficient to  engage  others  to  defend  it.  The  aggregate  of  these, 
the  smallest  portions  possible,  forms  the  right  of  punishing; 
all  that  extend  beyond  this  is  abuse,  not  justice.* 

*Beccaria. 


562  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

History,  and  our  own  experience,  clearly  show  that,  no  ar- 
gument, however  convincing — no  eloquence,  however  moving, 
is  sufficient  to  ensure  obedience  to  either  the  moral  or  social 
law.  This  is  true  of  our  species  in  every  age  and  under  every 
condition,  whether  dwelling  in  caves,  in  tents  or  in  cities. 
Hence,  the  necessity  of  that  branch  of  public  policy  usually 
called  the  criminal  law.  Temporal  punishments  operating  on 
the  senses  of  mankind,  producing  pain  of  body  or  anguish  of 
mind,  have  been  universally  resorted  to.  These  punishments 
may  clearly  extend  to  the  privation  of  all  social  benefits  and 
advantages.  These,  society  gave,  and  can,  therefore,  take 
away.  Hence,  banishment  was  a  frequent  punishment  under 
the  Grecian  and  Roman  governments,  as  transportation  is  at 
this  day  by  the  laws  of  Great  Britain.  Can  they,  however,  be 
rightfully  extended  to  the  destruction  of  human  life — to  the 
dissolution  of  that  union  between  soul  and  body,  ordained  by 
the  Almighty,  and  too  mysterious  for  mortal  comprehension  ? 


THE    EXPRESSED    OR    IMPLIED    ASSENT    OF     INDIVIDUALS, 

The  right  of  society  to  deprive  any  of  its  members  of  life, 
is  claimed  on  the  ground  of  his  actual  or  implied  assent  to  that 
condition  of  the  social  compact  at  the  time  of  his  admission 
into  it.  It  must  be  evident  that  an  actual  assent  has  but  rare- 
ly, if  ever,  been  given.  Governments  have  never  been  organ- 
ized at  once,  with  all  their  laws,  civil  and  criminal,  in  full  ma- 
turity. Their  origin  is  commonly  hidden  in  the  darkness  of 
antiquity,  where  no  record  can  be  seen  to  inform  us  what  were 
the  ceremonies  of  their  commencement.  The  American  gov- 
ernments constitute  a  proud  and  striking  exception,  in  the  time 
and  manner  of  their  origin  ;  but  in  none  of  these  has  an  actual 
assent  been  given  by  the  citizens  to  the  laws,  either  civil  or 
criminal.  When  or  where  have  they  ever  been  assembled  to 
give  such  an  assent? 

The  right  in  question  must,  therefore,  chiefly  depend  on  the 
implied  assent  of  individuals — from  their  continuing  in  society 
after  they  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  sound  discretion.  At  such 
an  age,  it  were  almost  impossible  that  man  should  leave  socie- 
ty. His  social  habits  which  the  law  has  encouraged — his  ties 
of  kindred,  which  the  law  has  commanded  him  to  regard,  even 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  563 

his  very  religion,  to  which  the  law  has  been  as  an  handmaid, 
all  chain  him  to  the  spot  of  his  nativity,  and  repel  him  from  the 
forest  or  the  desert.  In  such  a  state  of  moral  duress,  will  the 
law  exact  even  an  implied  promise  to  its  obedience — obedience 
too,  even  unto  death  ? 

Suppose,  however,  such  an  assent  given — nay,  more  ;  sup- 
pose an  actual  assent  given,  in  proper  person,  by  every  individ- 
ual member  of  a  community,  that  certain  crimes  should  be  pun- 
ished with  death ;  I  ask,  have  they  a  right  to  give  such  an  as- 
sent, or  to  enter  into  such  a  stipulation  ?  They  have  no  right 
to  authorize  others  to  do  that  which  they  are  not  authorized  to 
do  themselves.  No  man  ever  had  a  right  to  take  away  his 
own  life  ; — it  is  not  his  own  to  take — it  is  the  high  and  unaliena- 
ble gift  of  his  Maker  !  Who,  then,  should  dare  to  extinguish 
that  vital  flame  which  God  has  kindled  ?  Who  shall  dare  im- 
piously to  war  against  the  purposes  of  Heaven,  and  with  his 
hands  reeking  with  his  own  blood,  rush,  uncalled  for,  into  the 
presence  of  Deity  ?  The  dagger,  the  pistol,  the  poisoned  chal- 
ice, and  the  halter,  have,  indeed,  achieved  many  suicidal  con- 
quests, but  not  until  all  the  high  born  faculties  of  their  victims 
lay  prostrate  in  derangement.  If  our  life  ever  become  a  bur- 
den to  us,  our  crimes  and  follies  have  made  it  so  ;  and  we  should 
so  live,  that  in  deep  repentance  we  might  atone  for  them.  No 
argument  can  be  necessary  at  the  present  day  to  establish  the 
proposition, — the  command  of  the  Decalogue — "thou  shalt  not 
kill ;"  many  precepts  of  our  Saviour  and  his  Apostles,  and  all 
the  first  principles  of  our  nature  are  opposed  to  suicide,  and 
nothing  in  favor  of  it  but  downright  insanity.  In  some  coun- 
tries the  laws  attempt,  even,  to  punish  it  as  a  crime.  The  body 
of  him  who  comes  to  a  voluntary  death,  is  drawn  on  a  hurdle 
and  pierced  with  a  stake  ;  his  memory  is  rendered  infamous, 
his  family  disgraced,  and  his  estate  forfeited.*  Since,  then, 
no  individual,  whether  living  alone  on  some  distant  island, 
or  residing  in  the  crowded  city  of  civilized  life,  has  any  right 
to  take  away  his  own  life,  I  ask,  how  can  he  delegate  that  right 
to  another?  How  can  he  hand  over  the  halter  to  society  and 
say,  here  it  is,  although  I  have  no  right  to  use  it  myself,  yet  you 

*Voltaire's  Commentary. 


564  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

are  hereby  authorized,  with  it  to  terminate  my  existence  when- 
ever you  may  think  proper  ?  In  nature,  can  the  stream  ever 
rise  higher  than  the  fountain  ?  In  law,  can  the  agent  have 
more  authority  than  the  principal  ?  In  reason,  can  a  man  give 
to  others  what  he  has  not;  or  can  he  give  more  than  he  hath? 
It  is  inexpressibly  painful  to  dwell  on  such  gross  absurdities. 
The  right  of  society  to  destroy  the  image  of  God  on  earth, 
must,  therefore,  be  sought  for  from  some  other  quarter  than 
either  the  expressed  or  implied  delegation  of  it,  by  its  indi- 
vidual members,    . 


THE    LAWS    OF    NATURE. 

In  deriving  this  right,  a  distinguished  author  has  drawn  a 
distinction  between  offences  against  the  laws  of  nature  and 
those  against  the  laws  of  society — between  crimes  mala  in  se, 
and  such  as  are  only  mala  prohibita.  The  right  of  punishing 
the  first,  as  murder  and  the  like,  with  death,  is,  in  a  mere  state 
of  nature,  vested  in  every  individual — whereof,  Cain,  the  first 
murderer,  was  so  sensible,  that  we  find  him  expressing  his  ap- 
prehensions that  whoever  should  find  him  would  slay  him.* 

We  have  heretofore  attempted  to  show  that  this  state  of 
mere  nature  never  did  exist  but  in  the  dreams  of  poetry.  The 
savage  and  uncultivated  state  has,  no  doubt,  often  existed,  in 
which  men  have  lived  in  the  desert,  little  superior,  in  enjoy- 
ment, to  the  lion  and  the  tiger,  and  much  his  inferior  in 
strength  and  safety.  But  the  natural,  as  opposed  to  the  so- 
cial state,  never  did,  and  of  course  the  laws  of  nature,  as  a 
code  for  the  government  of  men,  in  that  condition,  cannot  be 
referred  to  without  the  most  evident  absurdity.  To  suppose 
men  to  be  out  of  their  natural  state,  so  soon  as  they  begin  to 
form  plans  of  government,  and  to  invent  the  useful  and  orna- 
mental arts  of  life,  is  as  irrational  as  to  suppose  ants  to  be 
out  of  their  natural  state  when  they  store  up  their  hoards  for 
winter,  or  bees  when  they  construct  combs  for  their  honey. f 
There  are,  however,  certain  principles  attached  to  our  nature, 
and  inseparable  from  our  being;  they  are  not  enrolled  on  parch- 
ment, but  are  engraved  on  the  hearts  of  all  men;  they  belong 
to  them  in  every  condition,  in  the  cave  as  well  as  the  palace — 


*  4  Bl.  Com.  ch.  1.  f  Sull.  view  of  nat. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 


565 


in  the  desert  as  well  as  the  city.  If  these  constitute  the  laws 
of  nature,  their  existence  is  most  cheerfully  admitted.  The 
right  of  self-defence,  common  alike  to  the  reptile  and  the  man, 
is  one  of  them,  by  virtue  of  which,  not  only  individuals,  but  so- 
cieties may,  in  certain  cases,  be  justified  in  taking  away  hu- 
man life.  These  cases  will  be  hereafter  specified,  rare  in 
their  occurrence,  and  always  dependant  on  the  fact  of  total 
inability  in  the  government  otherwise  to  protect  itself. 

The  case  of  the  first  murderer  can  hardly  be  considered  an 
apt  illustration  of  any  other  law  of  nature  than  that  of  self- 
preservation.     Why  did  Cain  feel  such  apprehensions,  that 
whoever  might  find  him  out  would  slay  him  ?     Not  from  any 
law  which  had  ever  been  enforced  among  mankind  in  a  state 
of  nature  or  previous  to  any  social  connexion,  for  they  had 
never  lived  in  such  a  state,  and  of  course  had  never  been  sub- 
ject to  any  such  law;  not  as  alleged  by  an  eminent  divine,* 
because  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  were  of  one  family, 
and  each  having  the  right  to  kill  the  murderer  of  his  relative, 
for  this  was  the  first  murder  ever  committed.     Mankind  were 
taken   by  surprise    and    had  scarcely  legislated  in  advance 
against  such  a  crime.     The  law,  or  custom,  that  the  nearest 
relative  might  avenge  the  death  of  his  kinsman,  must  have 
taken  rise  much  later  in  the  world,  after  repeated  acts  of  the 
same  kind  had  suggested  the  idea  to  mankind.     These  appre- 
hensions must  have  arisen  from  the  terrors  of  a  guilty  con- 
science.    He  had  just  looked  upon  death  for  the  first  time  ;  the 
pale  and  bleeding  corpse  of  nis  brother  was  ever  before  his 
imagination,  and  the  terrible   denunciations  of  Heaven  were 
even  then  ringing  in  his  ears.     No  wonder,  if  in  every  hand  he 
expected  to  find  the  flaming  sword  of  vengeance !     Nor  do 
these  fears  seem  to  have  been  entirely  groundless.     The  news 
of  his  horrid,  and  till  now  unheard  of  crime,  no  doubt  flew  far 
and  wide  in  every  direction.     The  mind3    of  men  were  filled 
with  astonishment  and  alarm.     They  would  hear,  too,  that  this 
fugitive  and  vagabond  had  been  cursed  from  the  earth  by  the 
Almighty  himself.     In  such  a  state  of   excitement,  to  what 
might  not  their  fears  for  their  own  safety,  and  a  belief  that  they 

*Adam  Clark. 


566  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

would  be  doing  "God  service,"  have  prompted  them?  So  the 
Lord  put  a  mark  on  Cain,  not  for  his  guilt  only,  for  that,  by- 
establishing  his  identity  and  perpetually  reminding  mankind 
of  his  crime,  would  evidently  have  increased  his  danger;  but 
a  mark  which,  besides  proving  his  guilt,  would  also  admonish 
the  rest  of  mankind  against  his  destruction.  One  conclusion, 
however,  may  be  fairly  drawn  from  this  case,  which  is  certain, 
and  too  important  to  be  overlooked  :  Whether  these  apprehen- 
sions were  founded  on  the  laws  of  nature,  as  alleged  by  Black- 
stone,  or  on  the  law  of  one  relation's  avenging  the  death  of  ano- 
ther, either  is  expressly  repealed,  and  sevenfold  vengeance  de- 
nounced against  all  who  might  attempt  to  enforce  them.  If 
not  founded  on  either  of  these  laws,  but  on  a  spirit  of  ven- 
geance or  the  fears  of  mankind,  they  are  forbidden  to  be  in- 
dulged under  the  same  severe  penalty. 

Why  was  the  punishment  annexed  to  the  slaying  of  Cain  to 
be  sevenfold  greater  than  his,  for  slaying  his  brother  ?  No 
case  could  hardly  ever  equal  it  in  atrocity — none  at  all  events 
could  ever  surpass  it  in  that  proportion.  May  it  not  have  been 
done  from  a  knowledge  on  the  part  of  Deity,  that  from  some 
principle  in  our  fallen  nature,  difficult  of  specification,  so 
strong  would  be  the  inclination  to  usurp  the  high  prerogative 
of  deciding  on  life  or  death,  which  he  was  determined  to  retain 
in  his  own  hands,  that  nothing  less  than  so  great  a  penalty 
would  be  sufficient  to  restrain  it.  If  the  principle  of  self-de- 
fence be  that  law  of  nature  referred  to  by  Blackstone,  it  per- 
fectly accords  with  the  doctrine  of  this  essay,  and  in  deriv- 
ing the  right  in  question,  that  able  commentator  lays  down 
the  following  rule:  "To  shed  the  blood  of  our  fellow  crea- 
ture is  a  matter  that  requires  the  greatest  deliberation  and 
the  fullest  conviction  of  our  own  authority;  for  life  is  the 
immediate  gift  of  God  to  man,  which  neither  can  he  resign  nor 
can  it  be  taken  from  him,  unless  by  the  command  or  permission 
of  Him  who  gave  it,  either  expressly  revealed  or  collected  from 
the  laws  of  nature  or  society  by  clear  and  indisputable  demon- 
stration."* How  can  the  command  or  permission  here  spoken 
of  be  collected  from  the  laws  of  society  ?     They  condemn  the 

*4B1.  Com.  ch.  1. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  567 

traitor  and  murderer  to  death,  "clearly  and  indisputably;"  but 
do  they  do  so  by  the  command  or  permission  of  Deity  ?  This 
can  never  be  learned  from  human  laws,  but  must  be  searched  for 
in  the  paramount  code  of  Divine  legislation.  Unless  the  ex- 
pression be  strictly  confined  to  those  who  attempt  to  exercise 
judicial  functions,  it  evidently  impairs  a  rule  which  we  believe 
to  be  perfect  without  it. 


THE    SUPPOSED    NECESSITY  OF    SUCH    PUNISHMENT. 

Its  exercise  is  often  justified  by  writers,  and  some,  too,  of 
great  eminence,  on  the  score  of  necessity — "that  inexorable 
tyrant,  which,  with  an  iron  sceptre,  rules  the  universe."  It  is 
admitted  that  society  has  a  right  to  defend  itself  against  the 
lawless  encroachments  of  either  its  own  members  or  of  for- 
eign enemies;  and  that  if  this  defence  cannot  be  made  effec- 
tual without  taking  away  the  life  of  the  assailant,  it  may  right- 
fully do  so  on  the  great  principle,  stated  in  a  former  chapter, 
of  self-defence.  The  same  principle  is  allowed  of  by  the  law 
to  individuals,  and  is  so  deeply  engraved  on  the  heart  of  every 
man  as  to  be  inseparable  from  his  very  being.  Individuals, 
however,  in  the  exercise  of  it,  are  subjected  to  certain  rules 
and  restrictions,  without  which  it  would  no  longer  be  a  shield 
to  defend  them,  but  a  sword  of  destruction  wielded  by  cruelty 
and  vengeance.  Hence,  the  rule  of  law,  that  the  assault  must 
be  such  as  to  threaten  the  life  of  the  individual,  or  some  great 
bodily  harm  to  him,  and  so  made  as  to  leave  him  no  other  pos- 
sible, or  at  least,  probable  means  of  escape.  He  must  betake 
himself  to  flight,  he  must  retreat  even  to  the  wall,  e'er  he  is 
permitted  to  shed  the  blood  of  his  fellow  !  All  this  is  required 
of  him,  as  avowed  by  the  law,  from  extreme  tenderness  to- 
wards human  life. 

Apply  even  these  rules,  without  insisting  on  others,  to  soci- 
ety when  she,  in  her  turn,  is  arraigned  for  the  many  victims 
whose  blood  she  has  shed.  She  pleads  justification  and  in- 
sists that  all  her  capital  punishments  were  inflicted  in  self-de- 
fence ;  that  one  plotted  treason  against  her,  another  imbrued 
his  hands  in  another's  blood,  and  a  third  counterfeited  or  cor- 
rupted her  coin. 

These  did,  indeed,  threaten  her  existence,  or  at  all  events, 


568 


MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 


some  great  bodily  harm;  but  had  she  no  other  possible,  or  even 
probable  means  of  escaping  their  meditated  mischiefs?  I  ask 
this  question  again  of  every  civilized  nation  on  earth,  had  you 
no  other  possible  or  probable  means  of  defending  yourselves 
against  traitors,  murderers  and  counterfeiters,  but  by  resorting 
to  the  wheel,  the  halter  or  the  guillotine?  Thousands  of 
these  you  have  launched  from  time  into  eternity  with  all  their 
sins  green  and  blooming  upon  them ; — had  you  no  other  alter- 
native ?  Could  you  not  have  banished  or  transported  them  to 
some  distant  shore,  far  from  any  possibility  of  their  future  an- 
noyance? Or  could  you  not  have  doomed  them  to  perpetual 
slavery,  shutting  them  out,  not  for  a  few  years,  but  forever, 
from  that  society,  of  whose  benefits  they  were  indeed  unworthy? 
Your  punishments,  then,  would  have  been  confined  to  their 
bodies,  and  you  would  have  allowed  to  their  souls  that  space  and 
opportunity  for  repentance,  without  which  neither  the  king  on 
his  throne,  the  judge  clothed  in  ermine,  nor  the  poor  wretch 
trembling  under  the  gallows,  can  ever  see  the  face  of  God  in 
peace.  In  either  of  these  situations  (banished  or  imprisoned 
for  life,)  they  would  have  been,  in  fact,  dead  to  society,  but 
alive  to  the  upbraidings  of  a  guilty  conscience — the  punishment 
of  God  on,man  whilst  on  earth,  and  the  foretaste  of  that  fiery 
indignation  which,  without  the  deepest  repentance,  awaits  him 
in  eternity. 

Such  complaints  as  these,  it  is  true,  would  not  apply  to  all 
nations,  nor  to  the  same  nation  in  every  condition.  The  fam- 
ily of  Noah  leaving  the  ark  of  their  deliverance  and  descend- 
ing the  mountain  that  they  might  find  a  subsistance  in  the  cul-  * 
tivation  of  the  plains,  had  not  the  means  of  banishing  or  im- 
prisoning for  life  any  of  its  members  who  might  prove  refrac- 
tory. The  same  admission  may  be  extended  to  the  Grecian, 
Roman  and  American  colonies,  and,  in  fact,  to  every  nation 
in  the  youthful  dawn  of  its  existence.  When,  however,  it  has 
attained  to  something  like  maturity,  with  a  population  ade- 
quate to  its  protection — with  a  commerce  that  secures  enough 
of  national  wealth,  with,  indeed,  enough  of  every  thing  (save 
humanity)  which  would  enable  it  to  make  successful  defence 
against  the  lawless  and  unprincipled — the  death  of  a  citizen 
can  never  be  necessary  but  in  a  single  case  :    when,  though 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  569 

deprived  of  his  liberty,  he  has  such  power  and  connexion  as 
may  endanger  the  security  of  the  nation,  when  his  existence 
may  produce  a  dangerous  revolution  in  the  established  form  of 
government;  but  even  then,  it  can  only  be  necessary  when  a 
nation  is  on  the  verge  of  recovering  or  losing  its  liberties,  or  in 
times  of  absolute  anarchy,  when  the  disorders  themselves  hold 
the  place  of  laws.  But  in  a  reign  of  tranquility,  in  a  form  of 
government  approved  by  the  united  wishes  of  the  nation,  in  a 
state  well  fortified  from  enemies  without  and  supported  by 
strength  within,  and  opinions,  perhaps,  more  efficacious,  where 
all  power  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  a  true  sovereign — where 
riches  can  purchase  pleasures  and  not  authority,  there  can  be 
no  necessity  for  taking  the  life  of  a  subject.* 

This  argument  of  self-defence  is  sometimes  presented  in  ano- 
ther aspect.  It  is  said  society  may  take  away  the  lives  of  its 
members,  not  only  to  prevent  their  future  depredations,  but  for 
the  purpose  of  deterring  others  from  the  commission  of  like 
offences;  as  it  is  said  in  one  of  the  old  books  "ut  poena  ad pau- 
cos,  metus  ad  omnes  perveniatP  This  proposition  can  be  ad- 
mitted in  this  argument  only  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  mode  or 
manner  of  inflicting  capital  punishments,  but  not  as  the  foun- 
dation of  a  right  to  do  so.  In  all  cases,  where  nations  are 
justified  on  the  score  of  self-defence,  to  inflict  the  punishment 
of  death  they  may  direct,  as  matter  of  policy,  their  executions 
to  be  made  in  public,  that  the  rest  of  the  community  may  profit 
by  the  example.  Suppose,  however,  that  society  were  to 
determine  that  all  accusations,  trials  and  executions  touching 
human  life,  should  be  conducted  in  profound  secrecy — that  the 
result  should  never  be  made  known  to  the  world,  would  the 
right  in  question  be  imperfect  because  the  punishment  of  death 
was  not  inflicted  before  the  multitude?  Nations  have  often 
found  it  necessary,  from  motives  of  state  policy,  from  a  threat- 
ened rescue,  from  an  apprehended  tumult,  to  inflict  their  pun- 
ishment in  a  dungeon.  Were  all  these  executions  unauthor- 
ized, were  they  so  many  judicial  murders,  only  because  the 
horrid  spectacle  was  not  exhibited  to  the  sympathizing  or  in- 
furiated multitude  ? 

*Beccaria. 


570  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

The  strength  of  this  argument  consists  in  the  supposition 
that  without  such  punishments  crimes  would  become  so  fre- 
quent as  to  threaten  the  existence  of  society.  "Was  the  vast 
territory  of  all  the  Russias  worse  regulated  under  the  late 
Empress  Elizabeth,  than  her  more  sanguinary  predecessors? 
Is  it  now,  under  Catharine  the  second,  less  civilized,  less  social, 
less  secure?  And  yet  we  are  assured  that  neither  of  these 
illustrious  princesses  have  throughout  their  whole  administra- 
tion inflicted  the  penalty  of  death  ?"*  The  punishment  of 
murder,  by  death,  has  been  proved  to  be  contrary  to  the  order 
and  happiness  of  society,  by  the  experiments  of  some  of  the 
wisest  legislators  in  Europe.  The  Empress  of  Russia,  the  King 
of  Sweden,  and  the  Duke  of  Tuscany,  have  nearly  extirpated 
murder  from  their  dominions  by  converting  its  punishment  into 
the  means  of  benefiting  society  and  reforming  the  criminals 
who  perpetrate  it.f  Actual  experiments  of  a  total  abolition 
are  not  very  numerous,  but  nearly  every  government  in  the 
civilized  world  has  made  partial  ones  that  ought  to  be  satisfac- 
tory. Is  the  British  government  less  secure  for  having  reduced 
the  number  of  her  capital  felonies  from  about  two  hundred  to 
twenty  or  thirty  ?  What  government  has  been  weakened  or  en- 
dangered by  abolishing  the  punishment  of  death  for  heresy  and 
for  witchcraft?  The  gradual  amelioration  of  the  criminal  code, 
so  far  from  weakening,  has,  no  doubt,  in  many  countries,  in- 
creased the  actual  strength  of  the  government,  in  drawing 
around  it  the  rational  approbation  of  the  age — by  the  explo- 
sion of  those  ancient  barbarities  which  are  now  justly  regarded 
with  the  deepest  abhorrence.  Will  no  punishment  short  of 
death,  in  the  cases  which  still  remain  capital,  after  all  the  im- 
provements in  criminal  jurisprudence,  be  equally  safe  for  so- 
ciety, by  equally  deterring  men  from  the  commission  of  crimes  ? 
Wre  say  an  equal  effect,  because,  after  thousands  of  experi- 
ments, in  which  death  has  been  inflicted  in  every  variety  of 
manner,  with  all  the  torture  and  ignominy  which  the  human 
mind  could  invent,  it  has  proven  utterly  insufficient  for  that 
purpose.  Men  have  been  strangled  to  death — have  been  burnt 
alive  at  the  stake — have  been  torn  asunder  by  trees  fastened  to 

1 ' ' '  1 ' — — ' 

*  4  Bl.  Com.  ch.  1.  t  Rush's  Essays. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  571 

their  limbs — have  been  devoured  by  wild  beasts — have  been 
beheaded  at  the  block,  and  hung  up  by  the  neck  under  the 
gallows,  in  every  age  and  almost  every  nation  of  the  earth — 
still,  treason,  and  murder,  and  robbery,  and  all  the  long  cata- 
logue of  capital  offences,  are  daily  committed  by  men  who  will 
not  take  warning  from  these  bloody  threatenings  of  the  law. 
Is  it  not  time,  therefore,  to  try  some  new  remedy — to  resort  to 
some  different  mode  of  punishment,  more  beneficial  in  its  ope- 
ration on  society — more  clearly  within  the  pale  of  its  authority 
to  inflict,  and  more  consonant  with  the  precepts  of  that  benign 
religion,  which,  whilst  it  declares  the  sufferer  to  be  a  frail  child 
of  the  dust,  also  proclaims  him  an  heir  of  immortality. 


THE    RIGHT    AS    SUPPOSED    TO  BE    FOUNDED    ON    DIVINE    REVELATION. 

Having  seen  that  human  life,  from  the  nature  of  its  gift,  can 
be  taken  away  only  by  the  command  or  permission  of  Him  who 
gave  it,  our  enquiry  is  now  directed  to — whether  such  com- 
mand or  permission  has  ever  been  given.  Prior  to  the  deluge 
there  seems  to  have  been  no  express  law  against  murder; — no 
precept  having  been  delivered  on  the  subject,  mankind  was 
left  to  that  innate  horror  and  consciousness  of  its  improprity, 
which,  during  the  period  of  two  thousand  years,  with  only  one 
or  two  exceptions,  was  found  sufficient  for  its  prevention. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable,  because,  in  the  latter  part  of  that 
period,  so  great  was  the  depravity  and  wickedness  of  man,  that 
the  very  windows  of  Heaven  were  opened  and  the  foundations 
of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up  for  his  destruction.  The 
murder  of  Abel  is  probably  the  only  one  recorded  from  the 
creation  to  the  flood.  What  is  said  of  Lamech  is  too  obscure 
to  be  much  relied  on.*  Some  have  doubted  the  correctness  of 
the  translation,  and  insisted  that  it  should  be  read  interroga- 
tively ;  others  have  supposed  that  Lamech  had  slain  a  man 
in  self-defence;  and  that  he  delivered  this  speech  to  his  wives  to 
quiet  fears  entertained  by  them,  lest  the  nearest  kinsman  might 
avenge  the  deed ;  whilst  St.  Jerome  indulges  a  rather  silly 
conceit,  that  he  had,  by  accident,  in  some  way  or  other,  taken 
away  the  life  of  Cain.     If,  however,  it  be  taken  literally,  ac- 

*Genesis,  ch.  4,  23. 


572  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

cording  to  our  common  translations,  it  will  only  prove  that  two 
murders  instead  of  one  were  committed  in  the  antedeluvian 
world.  The  punishment  of  Cain  was  the  first  precedent  fur- 
nished to  mankind.  It  was  not  pronounced  by  any  human  tri- 
bunal subject  to  the  errors  and  imperfections  of  hnmanity; — 
t  not  even  by  Adam,  the  natural  lawgiver  and  judge  of  the 
world,  who  had  received  the  lessons  of  wisdom  from  the  very 
lips  of  his  Creator,  and  on  whose  heart  all  the  original  impres- 
sions of  his  nature 'were  yet  bright  and  distinct.  No  !  God  him- 
self who  made  him  and  threw  around  him  all  the  incidents  of 
his  being,  becomes  his  judge  and  executioner.  No  gibbet  is 
erected — no  rack  of  torture  is  prepared  for  him; — these  are  the 
inventions  of  weak  and  angry  men.  He  is  banished  from  so- 
ciety—a mark  of  his  crime,  and  of  his  destruction  being  pro- 
hibited, is  placed  upon  him — he  is  subjected  to  the  necessity 
of  labor,  and  in  his  conscience  is  fixed  a  never  dying  worm. 
This  was  the  judgment  of  the  Most  High  God,  and  is*,  there- 
fore, exempt  from  every  possibility  of  error.  It  was  pronounced 
on  the  first  offender,  and  in  a  case,  since  then,  never  surpassed 
in  deep  atrocity. 

The  first  portion  of  the  sacred  writings  supposed  by  Sir 
William  Blackstone  to  confer  this  right,  is  the  sixth  Noahic 
precept — "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood 
be  shed,  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man-"  Some  have 
supposed  this  passage  to  be  prophetic  of  what  mankind  would 
do  on  the  principle  of  revenge,  and  not  a  command  or  permis- 
sion making  it  lawful  to  inflict  the  punishment  of  death.  With- 
out insisting  on  this  construction,  which  has  the  sanction  of 
several  illustrious  names,  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  these 
precepts  delivered  to  Noah  were  not  intended  to  be  perpetually 
binding  on  the  human  family ;  but  were  to  continue  in  force 
only  until  the  publication  of  some  other  code  should  take  place, 
more  minute  in  its  details  and  more  ample  in  its  provisions. 
The  former  race  of  mankind,  with  all  their  laws  and  institu- 
tions had  been  swept  away  and  destroyed  by  the  waters  of 
death.  The  only  survivors,  whilst  standing  around  the  rude 
altar,  hastily  reared  in  gratitude  for  their  deliverance,  received 
these  seven  precepts  or  laws  for  their  government.  They  were 
few  in  number — not  reduced  to  writing  nor  engraven  on  tables, 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  573 

and  capable  of  preservation  only  in  the  slippery  memory  of 
those  who  heard  them.     They  were,  therefore,  temporary  in 
their  nature,  and  embraced  those  subjects  only  which  were  ab- 
solutely necessary  in  their  peculiar  situation.     In  the  designs 
and  purposes  of  Providence,  it  seems  to  have  been  of  vast  im- 
portance  to  re-people  the  earth  and  re-supply  it  with  those 
various  animals  which  had  been  so   lately  destroyed.     Such 
was  its  solicitude,  if  the  expression  be  allowed,  to  repair  the 
universal  desolation  of  the  deluge,  that  every  one   of  these 
seven  commandments,  or  precepts,  seems  to  have  been  given 
with  that  view.     "Be  ye  fruitful — multiply  and  replenish  the 
earth,"  is  the  first  and  seventh.     "The  grant  of  animal  food — 
the  earth  having  become  less  fruitful,"  is  the  second  and  third. 
"The  prohibition  of  the  blood  of  animals,"  is  the  fourth.  "Cru- 
elty to  animals,"  is  probably  the   meaning  of  the  fifth;  and 
the    sixth   is  the  one  now  under    consideration.     This  brief 
analysis    will    serve    to    show    with   what  view   the   expres- 
sions were  introduced — "whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man 
shall  his  blood   be  shed."     The  little  family  of  Noah  was  a 
germ  from  which  all  the  future  nations  of  the  earth  were  to 
vegetate ;  every  possible  care  must  therefore  be  taken  for  its 
preservation.     The  means  of  self-defence  must  be  amply  ade- 
quate   to  its  protection,   against  all  attempts  to  destroy  it, 
even  to  retard  its  progress.     For  a  long  time  this  infant  society, 
on  whose  growth  and  enlargement  Divine  Providence  seems 
to  have  been  so  intent,  would  not  have  been  able,  by  the  ban- 
ishment or  imprisonment  of  the  refractory,  to  insure  its  safety. 
Hence  the  right  was  expressly  given,  to  take  away  the  life  of 
its  members,  there  being  no  other  probable  means  of  effectua- 
ting the  purposes  of  Heaven  in  their  preservation. 

The  exclusive  power  of  Deity,  over  human  life,  is  said  to 
have  been  committed  to  his  creatures,  in  the  law  delivered  to 
Moses  amid  the  fire  and  the  smoke  of  Mount  Sinai.  This  law 
has  been  correctly  divided  into  the  moral,  political  and  judicial. 
The  first,  commonly  called  the  decalogue,  or  ten  command- 
ments, comprising  an  interesting  and  sublime  system  of  moral 
government,  is  universal  in  its  operation,  and  perpetual  in  its 
obligation.  The  two  latter  have  never  been  so  considered. 
They  constitute  a  civil  code  for  the  government  of  the  Jews  only, 


574  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

exclusively  confined  to  them,  until  they  become  dispersed  over 
the  world,  without  a  king,  without  a  prince  and  without  a  sac- 
rifice.    Their  authority  commanding  the  infliction  of  capital 
punishments ^is  no  more  binding  on  a  Christian  nation,  than  the 
laws  of  Media  or  Persia,  or  of  those  various  tribes  that  were 
driven  from  Canaan  by  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Joshua. 
Nor  is  it  conceived,  that  they  are  entitled  to  any  weight,  even 
as  examples  permitting  the  destruction  of  human  life,  by  modern 
nations.     The  Jews  have  always  claimed,  and  have  been  well 
entitled  to,  the  appellation  of  a  peculiar  people.     Every  thing 
connected  with  them  seems  to  be  miraculous.     That  they,  so 
stiff-necked  and  rebellious,  should  have  been  selected  as  God's 
chosen  people — that  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  should  have 
been  divided  for  their  escape — that  a  cloud  by  day,  and  a  pil- 
lar of  fire  by  night,  should  have  directed  their  jourrieyings, — 
that  their  drink  should  have  been  made  to  gush  from  the  sides 
of  the  rock,  and  their  food  to  rain  down  from  the  clouds,— that 
their  laws  should  have  been  written  by  the  hand  of  God,  and 
delivered  on  Horeb  to  judges  and  priests  raised  up  and  inspir- 
ed to  carry  them  into  execution, — is  all  a  continual  succession 
of  miraculous  events,  in  the   providence  of  God,  toward  the 
Jewish  Nation.     How  strange,  then,  is  the  notion,  that  the  po- 
litical, judicial,  or  ceremonial  laws  of  such  a  people  should  be 
incorporated  in  any   system  of  modern  government !     Never 
was  there  before  or  since,  so  rebellious    a  people,  and  never 
were  such  extraordinary  means  necessary  to  keep  a  nation  in 
subjection.     Even  at  the  time  when  their  leader  and  deliverer 
was   receiving  these  very  laws  amidst  the  most   sublime  and 
awful  demonstrations  at  the  power  and  grandeur  of  a  God,  this 
wayward  people  set  themselves  to  dancing,  in  idolatrous  wor- 
ship, around  an  image  of  gold  !     Hence,  many  laws  were  given, 
peculiarly  adapted  to  them,  but  probably  not  suited  to  any  other 
nation   in   the  world.     Their  Divine  Legislator  expressly  de- 
clares, "  1  gave   them  statutes  that  were  not  good,  and  judg- 
ments whereby  they  should  not  live."     The  law  of  divorces 
and  retaliation  were  evidently   of  this  description,  and  were 
intended  as  curses,  not  as  blessings  on  the  Jewish  Nation. 


ON  CAPITAL   PUNISHMENT.  575 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED. 

As  it  is  the  general  and  almost  universal  habit  of  those  who 
advocate  the  infliction  of  capital  punishments,  to  run  to  the 
Mosaic  law,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  pursue  this  part  of  the  sub- 
ject a  little  farther.  The  Jewish  government  was  a  Theocracy, 
in  which  the  judges,  who  were  to  carry  the  laws  into  execution, 
were  but  the  especial  ministers  of  Heaven  raised  up  and  in- 
spired for  that  purpose.  They  were,  therefore,  perfectly  ex- 
empt from  all  error  and  corruption  in  judgment,  and  even  in- 
capable of  being  misled  by  the  perjury,  or  deceived  by  the 
ignorance  of  witnesses ;  they  pronounced  the  very  jndgment 
in  all  cases,  that  God  himself,  had  he  presided  on  earth,  would 
have  pronounced.  With  judicial  tribunals  so  divinely  organ- 
ized and  superintended,  a  system  of  laws  might  well  be  given 
to  that  nation,  whi^ch  wTould  be  altogether  unsuitable  to  a  go- 
vernment purely  the  work  of  men's  hands,  and  whose  laws 
were  to  be  administered  by  uninspired  judges,  and  often  by 
very  weak  and  very  wicked  ones. 

If  the  Mosaic  Law,  with  respect  to  murder,  be  obligatory  on 
Christians,  it  follows  that  it  is  equally  obligatory  upon  them 
to  punish  adultery,  blasphemy  and  other  capital  crimes,  that 
are  mentioned  in  the  Levitical  Law,  by  death.  Nor  is  this  all : 
it  justifies  the  extirpation  of  the  Indians,  and  the  enslaving  of 
the  Africans ;  for  the  command  to  the  Jews  to  destroy  the  Ca- 
naanites,  and  to  make  slaves  of  their  heathen  neighbors,  is  as 
positive  as  the  command  which  declares  "  that  he  that  killeth 
a  man  shall  surely  be  put  to  death." 

Every  part  of  the  Levitical  Law  is  full  of  types  of  the  Mes- 
siah. May  not  the  punishment  of  death  inflicted  by  it  be  in- 
tended to  represent  the  demerit  and  consequences  of  sin,  as 
the  cities  of  refuge  were  the  offices  of  the  Messiah  ?  And  may 
not  the  enlargement  of  murderers  who  had  fled  to  those  cities 
of  refuge,  upon  the  death  of  a  High  Priest,  represent  the  eter- 
nal abrogation  of  the  law,  which  inflicted  death  for  murder,  by 
the  meritorious  death  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world.* 

We  are  not,  however,  left  to  general  reasoning  like  this,  to 
obviate  the  force  of  these  Jewish  examples.     The  substance  of 

*Rush?s  Essays. 
38 


576  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

all  the  different  passages  which  we  have  heard  quoted,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  lex  talionis.  That  law  declared,  "  if  any  mischief 
followed,  then  shalt  thou  give  life  for  life — eye  for  eye — tooth 
for  tooth,"  &c.  How  many  human  beings  have  been  sacrificed 
under  the  supposed  authority  of  this  Law  ?  Were  they  all  as- 
sembled, they  would  outnumber  the  largest  army  that  folly  or 
ambition  ever  mustered  into  their  service  !  Yet  this  very  law 
stands  repealed,  not  only  by  the  general  temper  and  spirit  of 
the  Christian  dispensation,  but  by  the  express  declaration  from 
the  lips  of  our  Saviour  himself.  In  his  sermon  on  the  Mount, 
he  expressly  quotes  and  repeals  this  very  law  :  "  Ye  have  heard 
that  it  hath  been  said,  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth, 
but  I  say  unto  you,  (I  who  made  the  first  law  and*  can  repeal  it 
at  my  pleasure,)  /  say  unto  you,  that  ye  resist  not  evil;  but 
whoso  shall  smite  thee  on  the  one  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other 
likewise."  In  the  same  spirit  of  meekness  and  love,  he  refers 
to  another  Jewish  maxim  :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been 
said,  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  (or  friend)  and  hate  thine 
enemy.  But  I  say  unto  you,  love  your  enemies  ;  bless  them 
that  curse  you  ;  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you ;  and  pray  for 
them  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you ;  that  you  may 
be  the  children  of  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven ;  for  he 
maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth 
rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust."  What  pure  morality  ! 
What  sublime  disinterestedness  !  This  sermon  alone  furnishes 
conclusive  internal  evidence  of  the  divine  legation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  A  new  era  had  dawned  ;  a  new  dispensation  had  now 
opened.  The  clouds  and  shadows  of  the  Jewish  ceremonies 
were  all  to  be  dispelled.  "  Those  statutes  that  were  not  good, 
and  those  judgments  whereby  they  should  not  live,"  were  now 
to  be  repealed,  and  mankind  to  be  instructed  how,  in  mercy 
and  forgiveness,  to  resemble  their  Father  which  is  in  Heaven. 
He  makes  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good ;  lie  sendeth 
rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,  in  token  to  mankind  that,  as 
He  forgives  them,  and  even  returns  good  for  their  evil,  so,  also, 
should  they  learn  to  forgive  one  another.  "  Blessed  are  the 
merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy."  Let  it  not  be  supposed 
that  this  gospel  meekness,  though  inculcated  on  individuals, 
does  not  embrace  societies  and  governments  in  its  obligation. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  577 

These  are  but  so  many  associations  of  individuals,  and  their 
moral  features  must  necessarily  resemble,  and,  indeed,  be  the 
very  same  with  those  of  the  members  who  compose  them. 
That  individuals  must  practice  the  pure  and  sublime  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity,  whilst  the  government  they  compose  may 
set  at  nought  its  precepts,  would  be  an  inconsistency  too  gross 
to  be  insisted  on.  Nor  will  it  do  to  say  that  the  forgiveness  of 
injuries,  as  here  inculcated,  is  too  refined  morality  for  the  prac- 
tical government  of  either  individuals  or  societies.  That  is 
borrowing  the  argument  of  the  infidel,  without  having  the 
courage  to  incur  the  responsibility  of  avowing  his  principles. 
This  doctrine,  rightly  understood,  is  not  so  abstracted  and  diffi- 
cult of  practice.  It  calls  on  individuals  and  societies  to  sur- 
render so  much  of  their  natural  propensity  as  prompts  them 
to  the  infliction  of  vengeance  for  supposed  or  real  injuries.  Is 
it  unreasonable  to  require  the  surrender  of  such  a  passion,  and 
that,  too,  under  an  express  reservation,  "  vengeance  is  mine, 
saith  the  Lord ;  I  will  repay."  Still,  however,  both  individuals 
and  societies  are  left  at  liberty  to  protect  and  defend  themselves 
against  the  lawless  and  unprincipled,  where  passiveness  and 
acquiescence  would  only  invite  to  further  aggressions.  Now 
what  is  the  hanging  or  beheading  a  man,  but  taking  vengeance 
for  his  crime  ?  What  is  it  but  vengeance  to  require  life  for  life, 
eye  for  eye,  and  tooth^for  tooth  ?  When  the  next  of  kin  was 
commissioned  for  the  purpose,  it  was  called  expressly,  "  aveng- 
ing his  kinsman's  death  !"  When  the  offender  made  good  his 
escape  to  the  cities  of  refuge,  were  not  the  gates  directed  to  be 
closed  against  the  avengers  of  blood  ?  Yet  when  society  seizes 
the  sword  from  the  hands  of  the  kinsman,  pursues  after  the 
criminal,  overtakes  him  and  becomes  the  hangman  herself, 
she  disclaims  the  appellation,  either  because  it  is  degrading, 
or  because  she  is  conscious  that  vengeance  does  not  belong  to 
her,  "  but  is  mine,  saith  the  Lord."  Besides  this  express  and 
positive  repeal  of  the  law  of  retaliation,  which  required  life  for 
life,  the  conduct  and  discourses  of  our  Saviour  should  outweigh 
every  argument  that  has  been,  or  can  be  adduced,  in  favor  of 
capital  punishment  for  any  crime.  When  the  woman,  caught 
in  adultery,  was  brought  to  Him,  He  evaded  inflicting  the 
bloody  sentence  of  the  Jewish  law  upon  her.     He  forgave  the 


578  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS* 

crime  of  murder  on  the  cross ;  and  after  his  resurrection,  com- 
manded his  disciples  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  forgiveness,  first 
at  Jerusalem,  where  he  well  knew  his  murderers  still  resided. 
These  striking  facts  are  recorded  for  our  imitation,  and  seem 
intended  to  show  that  the  Son  of  God  died,  not  only  to  recon- 
cile God  to  man,  but  to  reconcile  men  to  each  other.  There 
is  another  passage  in  the  history  of  our  Saviour's  life,  which 
would,  of  itself,  overset  the  justice  of  the  punishment  of  death 
for  murder,  if  every  other  part  of  the  Bible  had  been  silent  on 
the  subject.  When  two  of  his  disciples,  actuated  by  the  spirit 
of  vindictive  legislators,  requested  permission  of  him  to  call 
down  fire  from  Heaven,  to  consume  the  inhospitable  Samaritans, 
he  answered  them,  "  the  Son  of  man  came  not  to  destroy  men's 
lives,  but  to  save  them."  Excellent  words  !  I  wish  they  com- 
posed the  motto  of  the  arms  of  every  nation  on  the  face  of 
the  earth ;  and  whilst  I  can  lay  my  finger  on  this  text  of  scrip- 
ture., I  will  never  believe  the  punishment  of  death  for  any  crime 
is  inculcated  by  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.* 


THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED. 

Beside  what  we  have  urged  in  the  preceding  chapter,  it 
may  be  asserted  that,  the  Christian  dispensation,  by  "  bringing 
life  and  immortality  to  light,"  abolished  the  punishment  of 
death.  That  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  and  from  them,  some 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the 
human  soul,  cannot  be  doubted ;  but  it  was  never  reduced  to  so 
much  certainty,  nor  so  well  understood  until  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  rose  triumphantly  from  the  sepulchre.  From  that  mo- 
ment the  soul  assumed  an  importance  which  well  justifies  the 
exclamation,  "  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul,  or  what  shall  he  give  in  exchange 
for  his  soul?"  That  its  happiness  or  misery  through  eternity, 
depends  on  its  moral  state  or  condition  when  leaving  the  world, 
is  so  distinctly  asserted  in  the  sacred  scriptures,  that  it  is  uni- 
versally admitted  in  all  religious  creeds.  All  this  gives  rise  to 
a  very  serious  question,  whether  the  infliction  of  capital  pun- 
ishments, may  not  involve  the  eternal  destruction  of  the  soul  of 


*Riish's  Essays. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  579 

the  unfortunate  victim.  If  permitted  to  live  out  his  days,  re- 
pentance deep  and  radical  might  ensure  the  forgiveness  of 
Heaven :  but  if  cut  off  by  the  judgment  of  man  and  not  of 
God,  with  all  his  sins  thick  and  clustering  around  him,  what 
will  be  his  eternal  destiny  ?  What  would  have  been  that  of 
Moses  for  slaying  the  Egyptian,  or  of  David  for  murdering 
Uriah,  had  they  been  arrested,  tried  and  executed  before  they 
repented  and  obtained  forgiveness  ?  It  is  a  universal  law  of 
religion,  that  repentance  must  always  precede  forgiveness,  and 
that  the  latter  is  indispensable  in  order  to  obtain  happiness  in 
a  future  life.  According  to  this  law,  their  eternal  destruction 
would  have  been  inevitable.  Yet  one  lived  to  become  a  distin- 
guished instrument,  in  the  hands  of  Providence,  of  good  to 
mankind,  and  the  other  to  receive  the  most  flattering  and  en- 
nobling title  ever  conferred,  "that  of  being  a  man  after  God's 
own  heart."  The  thought  is  certainly  a  dreadful  one,  that  a 
human  soul,  because  it  was  cut  off  prematurely  by  the  judg- 
ment of  men,  shall  be  forever  miserable,  when,  with  the  indul- 
gence which  its  Heavenly  Father  was  willing  to  have  given,  it 
would  have  been  received  and  even  welcomed  amongst  the 
saints  and  angels  in  glory.  Surely  the  fate  of  that  bright  em- 
anation, so  indestructible  in  its  nature,  and  so  much  beyond  all 
estimation  in  value,  has  never  been  left  thus  exposed  to  the 
weakness  and  wickedness  of  our  species  ! 

It  will  not  do  to  suppose  the  Almighty  to  interfere  and  turn 
aside  the  wrath  of  man,  by  pardoning  those  whom  he  might 
forsee  would  repent,  if  permitted  to  live  out  their  appointed 
times  :  for  that  would  admit  the  judgment  of  death  to  be  im- 
proper, since  it  requires  the  special  interposition  of  Providence 
to  prevent  its  too  horrible  consequences.  Nor  will  it  do  to 
say  that  human  tribunals  usually  allow  a  few  weeks,  and  even 
months,  to  be  devoted  to  repentance.  What  profane  mockery  ! 
as  if  man  should  measure  out  the  space  of  repentance  to 
man, — putting  it  down  on  his  frail  records  of  parchment, 
within  what  time  the  gracious  streams  of  mercy  shall  flow,  or 
be  forever  locked  up  in  the  bosom  of  the  Redeemer  !  Suppose 
him,  however,  within  this  brief  period,  by  meditation  and 
prayer,  to  succeed  in  that  repentance  which  bringcth  forgive- 
ness,— shall  he  be  forgiven  of  God,  and  yet  be  condemned  by 


580  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

men?  Here,  a  vile  culprit ;  there,  a  rejoicing  angel !  On  earth, 
suspended  under  a  gallows  ;  in  heaven,  seated  on  a  throne  of 
glory !  To  such  strange  inconsistencies  society  is  often  ex- 
posed. She  gives  time  for  repentance,  yet  no  reformation,  how- 
ever complete,  and  no  repentance,  though  proven  by  more  and 
stronger  circumstances  than  those  on  which  he  was  convicted, 
shall  rescue  him  from  his  fate. — Die  he  must — though  angels 
stand  ready  to  conduct  his  repentant  spirit  home  to  paradise, 
whilst  his  unrelenting  executioners  consign  his  body  to  the 
grave  of  infamy.  How,  in  the  economy  of  Heaven,  all  these 
difficulties  will  be  adjusted,  we  know  not ;  "  shadows,  clouds 
and  darkness  rest  upon  them."  The  slightest  probability,  how- 
ever, that  the  soul  of  the  offender  may  be  effected  by  the  judg- 
ment pronounced  against  his  body,  ought  instantly  to  stay  the 
hand  of  death,  and  substitute  perpetual  confinement  for  the 
guillotine  and  the  halter.  This  is  certainly  the  voice  of  safety 
echoed  back  by  humanity  and  religion. 

No  apology  is  intended  to  be  offered  for  the  moral  cast  which 
this  part  of  our  argument  has  assumed  :  it  grows  out  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  subject  we  are  investigating,  and  particularly  the 
contrast  which  we  are  attempting  to  exhibit  between  the  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  dispensations.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  which 
we  take  occasion  to  mention  before  we  close  this  contrast,  that 
the  advocates  of  capital  punishments,  whilst  catching  with  ea- 
gerness every  expression  of  the  Mosaic  and  Levitical  law  in 
their  favor,  should  have  entirely  overlooked  a  most  important 
provision  of  the  latter,  that  human  life  was  never  to  be  taken 
away  on  the  testimony  of  one  witness.  "  Whoso  killeth  any 
person,  the  murderer  shall  be  put  to  death  by  the  mouth  of 
witnesses  :  but  one  witness  shall  not  testify  against  any  person 
to  cause  him  to  die."*  "  At  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses,  or 
three  witnesses,  shall  he  that  is  worthy  of  death  be  put  to 
death."!  How  much  innocent — at  all  events,  how  much  doubt- 
fully guilty  blood,  might  have  been  spared,  had  these  excellent 
rules  of  evidence  been  observed.  Society  in  anger  seized  on 
the  sword  of  the  Jewish  law,  but  threw  away  its  shield. 

♦Numbers,  36.  30.  tDeut.  17,  6. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  581 

THE    FALLIBILITY    OF    ALL    EARTHLY    TRIBUNALS. 

As  most  great  truths  are  not  always  believed,  it  is  highly- 
probable  that  universal  assent  will  hardly  be  given  to  what  has 
been  urged^in  a  former  part  of  this  argument,  against  the  right 
to  inflict  the  punishment  of  death.  Admitting,  however,  for  the 
present,  such  a  right  to  exist,  beyond  the  limitation  of  self-de- 
fence, we  shall  attempt  to  show  that  it  is  inexpedient  or  im- 
proper to  exercise  it. 

An  argument  against  the  propriety  of  punishing  any  crime 
with  death  may  be  found  in  the  natural  frailty  of  man,  and 
consequent  fallibility  of  every  tribunal  in  which  he  presides. 
We  admit,  as  exceptions,  such  as  were  organized  under  the 
Jewish  Theocracy,  in  which  Moses  and  Joshua,  with  the  inspi- 
rations of  Heaven  constantly  streaming  upon  them,  pronounced 
judgments  as  much  exempted  from  the  possibility  of  error,  as 
if  they  had  been  pronounced  by  God  himself.  We  mean  such 
tribunals  as  are  composed  of  judges  selected  from  the  general 
mass  of  mankind,  and  who  can  have  no  claims  to  any  miracu- 
lous or  supernatural  assistance  in  the  discharge  of  their  func- 
tions. That  every  government  would  select  men  of  the  best 
talents  and  of  the  most  unimpeachable  integrity  for  its  judi- 
cial department,  might  be  one  of  those  presumptions,  which 
like  many  others  in  law,  is  directly  at  war  with  the  truth. — 
They  are  often  appointed  by  the  sovereign,  from  an  overween- 
ing partiality,  and  in  more  popular  governments,  from  the  strug- 
gles of  party,  or  the  arts  and  intrigues  of  electioneering  dema- 
gogues. Sometimes,  too,  the  influence  of  family  or  kindred, 
and  even  the  general  rudeness,  not  to  say  barbarity  of  a  na- 
tion, may  throw  the  ermine  around  them  who,  in  a  more  enlight- 
ened age,  would  scarce  deserve  to  be  the  executioners  of  jus- 
tice. Mistaken  parsimony,  however,  has  done  more  mischief 
on  this  subject,  than  all  other  causes  beside.  Governments 
will  not  pay,  and  competent  men  will  not  serve  ;  hence,  dolts 
and  blockheads  often  fill  those  places,  to  which  the  genius  of 
Mansfield  and  Eldon,  or  Marshal  and  Pendleton,  were  scarcely 
competent !  To  the  worst,  as  well  as  the  best  of  these,  is  en- 
trusted the  administration  of  a  grand  and  diversified  system  of 
law,  covering  the  whole  space  of  human  degradation,  and  ex- 
panding with  the  endless  evolutions  of  crimes.     To  commit 


«  ■ 

582  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

the  lives  of  men  to  such  judges,  is  downright  murder  in  socie- 
ty herself.  To  commit  them  to  the  judgment  of  any  one 
judge,  however  highly  gifted,  in  both  legal  and  moral  attain- 
ments, though  less  atrocious,  is  nevertheless  unsafe  and  impro- 
per. The  responsibility  is  too  great  and  the  consequences  of 
a  mistake  too  awful  to  be  incurred  by  any  one  individual  what- 
ever. During  a  long  and  difficult  cause,  amid  all  the  perplex- 
ities of  nisi  prius  trials,  having  to  guard  against  the  superior 
address  of  counsel  on  one  side,  and  perhaps  to  supply  the  defi- 
ciency in  skill  on  the  other,  he  will  be  almost  sure,  to  fall  into 
some  error,  either  in  the  admission  or  rejection  of  evidence,  or 
in  the  application  to  it,  of  the  sound  principles  of  law.  Such 
mistakes  as  these  may  result  from  the  slenderness  of  his  attain- 
ments in  his  profession,  or  they  may  be  produced  by  that  defec- 
tive organization  of  the  human  mind,  which  stamps  imperfec- 
tion as  a  motto  on  all  human  exertions.  Equally  fatal  ones 
may  arise  from  some  personal  bias  or  habit  of  the  judge. — 
These  give  weight  and  seriousness  to  a  defence,  or  detract 
from  it  in  exact  proportion  to  such  former  bias  or  habit. — 
Hence  the  provocation,  which  shall  extenuate  murder  into 
manslaughter,  or  the  overt  acts  that  shall  constitute  treason,  in 
the  practical  charge,  will  be  varied  according  to  the  constitu- 
tional courage,  and  the  political  connexions  of  the  judge. — 
We  say  the  practical  charge,  because  it  is  easy  for  a  court,  by 
its  manner,  to  produce  any  desired  effect  upon  a  jury,  without 
subjecting  itself  to  the  liability  of  correction  on  exceptions. 
The  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  judge,  may,  in  this  way  be 
insidiously  communicated  to  the  jury,  whilst  the  unfortunate 
victim  is  rendered  utterly  incapable  of  contradicting  their 
baneful  influence.  Even  in  cases  where  no  passions  nor  pre- 
judices, nor  even  former  habits  have  induced  the  error,  there  is 
often  &  pride  of  character  which  forbids  a  judge  from  making 
a  distinct  and  fair  admission  of  it  upon  record,  but  seeks  for 
evasions  and  colorings,  which  diminish  its  enormity,  and 
thereby  prevents  a  reversal.  The  practitioner  will  remember 
many  instances  in  which  no  solicitation  could  induce  the  court 
to  look  steadily  in  the  eye  of  its  own  blunders.  These  and 
other  objections  which  will  readily  suggest  themselves  to  the 
reader,  constitute  strong  and  conclusive  reasons,  why  the  life 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  583 

of  man  should  not  depend  on  the  uncertain  opinion  of  any  one 
individual  whatever.  If,  however,  the  trial  must  he  superin- 
tended and  conducted  by  one  only,  let  every  thing  be  required 
to  be  put  upon  record,  and  that  transmitted  to  the  highest  judi- 
cial tribunal  of  the  government,  for  its  examination  and  approv- 
al. Such  tribunals  are  commonly  composed  of  a  plurality  of 
judges  of  greater  age  and  experience,  and  more  exempt  from 
those  local  excitements  and  prejudices,  which  too  often  influ- 
ence inferior  courts  to  respond,  in  their  judgments,  to  the  infu- 
riated shouts  of  the  multitude.  If  the  sentence  of  death  must 
be  pronounced,  let  it  be  by  the  supreme  judicial  authority  of 
the  land.  Let  the  warrant  for  execution  be  signed  by  every 
individual,  so  that  each  may  feel  the  responsibility  of  the  con- 
demnation. All  this  should  be  done,  whether  an  appeal  be 
prayed  to  that  tribunal  or  not ;  because  society  itself  should  be 
unwilling  to  inflict  death,  until  every  possible  precaution  had 
been  used  to  avoid  mistakes,  and  because  a  matter  of  such 
high  importance  should  never  be  left  to  the  ignorance  of  the 
accused,  or  to  the  discretion  of  negligent  counsel,  either  en- 
gaged by  him  or  assigned  by  the  court. 

It  is  usual  to  obviate  most  of  these  objections,  by  referring 
to  the  trial  by  jury,  as  counteracting  these  casual  defects  in 
the  judges,  and,  in  some  degree,  remedying  even  their  want  of 
talents  and  learning.  The  institution  of  jury  trials  would,  no 
doubt,  deserve  those  high  eulogies  which  have  been  bestowed 
on  it,  if  it  were  not  for  its  complete  dependence  on  the  will  and 
opinion  of  the  judge.  That  rule  which  requires  them  to  re- 
ceive and  adopt,  with  implicit  obedience,  the  charges  and  in- 
structions of  the  court  in  matters  of  law,  leaves  them  but  so 
many  inefficient  instruments  to  fill  up  the  pageantry  of  judi- 
cial despotism.  In  those  countries,  where,  in  a  few  cases,  they 
are  allowed  to  be  judges  of  both  the  law  and  the  evidence,  it 
very  rarely  happens  that  juries  fail  to  adopt  those  opinions  of 
the  court,  which  have  been  clearly  expressed  and  insisted  on  in 
the  charge.  The  description  of  men  usually  selected  as  jurors, 
their  information,  habits  and  pursuits,  render  the  trial,  so  far  as 
they  are  concerned,  merely  nominal,  and  leaves  the  judge,  after 
all,  substantially,  the  sole  arbiter  of  life  and  death.  We  would 
appeal  to  the  experience   and  observation  of  the  whole  pro- 


584  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

fession  to  attest  the  fact,  that  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  both 
civil  and  criminal,  a  plausible  and  ingenious  judge,  of  pleasant 
manners,  with  only  a  moderate  share  of  legal  learning,  will  be 
able  to  extract  from  a  jury  whatever  verdict  he  may  be  pleased 
strongly  to  intimate  would  be  desired.  Where,  then,  is  the 
boasted  safety  of  jury  trials  ?  When  did  they  ever  rescue  a 
single  victim  from  the  grasp  of  a  Jeffries  thirsting  for  blood? 
Every  page  of  English  history  is  stained  with  convictions  con- 
sented to  by  juries,  because  desired  by  judges,  who  were  either 
afraid  to  incur  the  displeasure  of  their  sovereigns,  or,  who  had 
not  moral  energy  enough  to  resist  some  popular  prejudice  of 
the  times.  What  else  brought  Sidney  to  the  scaffold,  or  con- 
signed to  the  grave  of  infamy  so  many  Irish  patriots?  Love 
of  liberty  was  called  treason,  and  a  desire  to  remedy  existing 
abuses  was  construed  into  rebellion  ! 


THE    FALLIBILITY    OF    HUMAN    TRIBUNALS    CONTINUED. 

Human  tribunals  are  perpetually  subject  to  errors  and  mis- 
takes, from  the  corruption  and  ignorance  of  the  instruments 
which  they  are  obilged  to  use  in  conducting  their  trials.  Bold, 
unblushing  perjury  often  stalks  into  the  sacred  temple  of  jus- 
tice, pours  its  envenomed  poison  into  the  ears  of  the  jury,  and 
marches  out  again  with  impunity,  sure  and  exulting  in  the 
blood  of  its  victim  !  These  demoniac  visits  are  by  no  means 
rare.  The  experience  of  judges,  the  practice  of  the  profession, 
and  the  observation  of  intelligent  jurors,  could  tell  a  tale  of 
horror  which  should  make  society  startle  at  her  own  execu- 
tions. Yet  they  have  seen  or  only  suspected  one  of  a  thou- 
sand perjuries  which  have  been  committed  before  them.  The 
rest  have  escaped  all  the  probing  skill  of  the  advocate,  and 
could  only  be  attested  on  earth  by  those  sleeping  tenants  of 
the  grave,  whom  they  have  sacrificed.  They  have  all,  howev- 
er, been  faithfully  recorded  in  heaven's  chancery,  from  which 
they  shall  never  be  obliterated,  but  by  the  deepest  and  most 
hearty  repentance. 

...  But  if  corruption  has  slain  its  thousands,  ignorance  and  in- 
attention may  claim  a  triumph  more  numerous  and  equally 
inglorious.  How  often  has  it  occurred,  that  witnesses,  from  in- 
activity of  mind — from  mere  clumsiness  of  intellect,  have  fail- 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  585 

ed  to  give  a  correct  account  of  the  transaction  which  they 
were  called  on  to  relate  ?  A  look  or  jesture  is  often  of  immense 
importance  in  criminal  prosecutions.  The  tone  of  voice,  wheth- 
er one  of  supplication  or  defiance,  we  have  known  decide  the 
momentous  question  of  life  and  death!  If,  however,  these 
things  are  correctly  remembered,  how  often  are  they  incapable 
of  presenting  anything  like  a  fac  simile  to  the  jury  ?  Such  are 
the  practical  difficulties  on  this  subject,  that  a  personal  ren- 
countre, — in  the  streets — in  open  day — in  presence  of  many 
persons  of  undoubted  credibility — unincumbered  by  any  unu- 
sual multiplicity  of  circumstances — will  be  so  variously  repre- 
sented as  to  excite  the  surprise  of  every  observer,  ii  they  do 
not  shake  his  confidence  in  the  credibility  of  all  human  evi- 
dence. By  what  a  frail  tenure,  then,  do  we  hold  our  lives ! 
Our  enemy  may  assail  us  in  the  streets ;  may  prostrate  us  in 
the  dust ;  may  hold  the  uplifted  dagger  to  our  breasts,  yet  those 
who  look  upon  the  tragedy,  misled  by  their  alarm,  or  too  much 
excited  to  refer  the  rapid  incidents  of  the  moment  to  their  pro- 
per order,  strangely  represent  us  as  aggressors,  and  instead  of 
proving  a  shield  to  our  innocence,  become  swords  of  destruction 
against  our  lives  ! 

Jj  Human  evidence,  to  make  even  a  tolerable  approximation  to 
truth,  must  come  from  witnesses  who,  beside  veracity,  must 
possess  great  faithfulness  of  memory,  accuracy  of  observation, 
and  clearness  of  discrimination.  Such  individuals  are  com- 
paritively  rare  in  every  community,  and  the  proportion  which 
they  bear  to  the  great  aggregate  of  society,  exhibits  an  alarm- 
ing number  of  chances  against  arriving  at  anything  like  exact 
certainty  in  judicial  investigations.  Such  certainty  need  not 
be  required  in  question  of  mere  property,  but  there  is  no  meum 
and  tuum  in  taking  away  the  lives  of  our  fellow  beings.  The 
breath  which  you  stifle  was  breathed  into  his  nostrils  by  the 
living  God — the  body  which  you  destroy  was  fashioned  after 
his  divine  image — the  soul  which  you  dislodge  is  probably  an 
emanation  of  his  own  native,  uncreated,  and  incomprehensible 
essence ! 

Suppose,  however,  the  witnesses  not  to  have  sworn  falsely  in 
any  important  particular,  nor  to  have  fallen  into  any  mistake 
or  misapprehension  of  the  matter  about  which  they  testify, 


586  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

still,  the  chapter  of  accidents  and  errors  has  not  closed  yet. 
How  often  are  jurors,  from  carelessness  or  inattention — from 
weakness  or  inactivity  of  mind,  mistaken  in  many  important 
details  of  the  evidence  ?  How  often  is  the  charge  of  the  court, 
though  slowly  and  distinctly  delivered,  entirely  misunderstood 
or  forgotten  by  them  in  their  retirement  ?  Ask  them  afterwards 
for  a  verbal  report  of  the  trial,  and  you  will  be  astonished,  in 
many  cases,  to  hear  wrhat  a  rude  mass  they  make  of  the  evi- 
dence and  senseless  jargon  of  the  opinion  of  the  court.  And 
yet  jurors  are  generally  selectee  viri ;  and  when  called  by  the 
government  to  hold  its  own  inquests,  are  dignified  with  the  title 
o£"probi  etlegales  hominis /"  Although  " probi  et  legates"  they 
are  still  short-sighted  and  frail  instruments  of  humanity — capa- 
ble of  sleeping  in  the  box— of  forgetting  what  they  have  heard 
in  the  evidence — of  misunderstanding  the  instructions  of  the 
court — of  being  led  about  in  their  opinions  by  a  few  prominent 
members  of  their  own  body — of,  in  fact,  every  thing  which  ren- 
ders all  human  investigations  uncertain,  and  the  life  of  man 
extremely  precarious  when  made  dependent  upon  them.  These 
remarks  are  general  ones,  and  admit  of  all  those  exceptions, 
sometimes  in  favor  of  the  entire  pannel,  and  very  often,  indeed, 
of  individual  members  of  it,  which  a  sense  of  justice  would  re- 
quire should  be  made.  ' 

»  In  all  cases,  the  jury,  under  the  direction  of  the  court,  must 
ascertain  the  measure  of  criminality  in  the  accused.  This 
seems  to  depend  on  the  intention,  or  purpose  of  the  heart  with 
which  an  action  has  been  performed,  rather  than  its  injurious 
effects  on  society.  .  On  the  latter  principle,  the  madman  who 
shoots  his  prince  is  equally  guilty  and  worthy  of  punishment, 
as  the  ambitious  noble  who  assassinates  him  that  he  may  as- 
cend his  throne.  So  the  first  discovery  of  the  process  of  dis- 
tilling ardent  spirits,  and  of  making  gunpowder,  should  expose 
their  authors  to  severities  which  the  ingenuity  of  mankind  has 
never  yet  discovered,  because  they  have  done  more  mischief 
than  all  the  traitors,  murderers,  house-breakers,  and  shop-lift- 
ers, that  have  ever  lived.  These  last  were  but  so  many  indi- 
vidual marauders,  perplexing,  rather  than  seriously  endanger- 
ing society ;  whilst  the  former,  pouring  in  at  every  pass  their 
legions  of  vices  and  crimes,  have  committed  greater  havoc, 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  587 

than  did  those  northern  hordes,  which  once  desolated  Europe. 

In  many  cases,  how  is  it  possible  to  ascertain  this  intention 
or  purpose  of  heart  ?     It  is  not  visible  nor  tangible,  nor  the  sub- 
ject of  any  of  those  senses,  through  which  we  make  our  near- 
est approaches  to  truth.     If  recourse  be  had  to  the  accompa- 
nying outward  actions,  every  one's  experience  and  observation 
will  show  how  far  short  these  will  fall  of  furnishing  anything 
like  certainty  as  to  the  inward  motives  of  the  mind.     It  is  the 
very  design  of  villainy  to  prevent  this  accordance,  and  its  high- 
est success  depends  on  the  greatest  discrepancy  between  its  se- 
cret designs  and  outward  actions.     Hence,  it  has  never  been 
pretended,  that  the  outward  actions  were  infallible  indicia  to 
the  inward  motive,  but  that  such  motive  can  only  be  inferred  or 
presumed  from  them.     Now  the  same  motive,  it  is  known,  will 
often  produce  a  different  set  of  outward  actions,  and  that  these, 
though   alike,  will  often  be  the  result  of  different  motives. — 
Thus  the  flight  of  the  accused  may  be  from  consciousness  of 
guilt,  or  from  the  alarm  created  by  knowing  he  was  in  a  situa- 
tion to  be  suspected;  or  it  may  be  the  outward  action,  resorted 
to  by  a  friend  to  deceive  the  public,  and,  thereby,  draw  off  sus- 
picion from  the  real  felon.     Brutus  and  Casius,  in  the  assassi- 
nation of  Csesar,  performed  about  the  same  set  of  outward  ac- 
tions, yet  it  was  said  the  one  hated  the  tyranny,  the  other  the 
tyrant ;  motives  widely  different  in  their  character — exalting 
one  to  the  highest  elevation  of  Roman  patriotism,  and  debas- 
ing the  other  to  the  meanness  of  envying  a  greatness  which  he 
could  not  rival. 

Outward  and  accompanying  actions  are,  therefore,  so  equiv- 
ocal, that  human  tribunals  never  resort  to  them,  to  ascertain 
the  certainty  of  the  wicked  intent ;  for  that  being  in  the  heart 
cannot  be  known  by  men,  but  only  the  different  degree  of  pro- 
bability strengthening  or  weakening  the  presumption  of  such  in- 
tent. The  measure  of  criminality,  is,  in  this  way,  only  a  mat- 
ter of  conjecture — of  presumption — of  probability — in  fact  a 
mere  matter  of  guess-work  with  the  jury,  in  which  they  are  no 
doubt  sometimes  right  and  may  be  often  wrong.  It  will  not 
do  to  say  that  they  are  oftener  right  than  wrong ;  that  may  be 
admitted,  and  yet  the  solemn  question  be  asked,  whether,  if 
the  life  of  man  shall  be  taken  away  with  a  bare  majority  of 


588  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

chances,  that  it  may  be  right  to  do  so?  If  a  bare  majority  be 
not  insisted  on  as  sufficient,  what  shall  be  the  safe  and  lawful 
proportion  ?  There  is  a  nominal  rule  of  the  law  which  serves 
to  decorate  many  of  its  pages,  "  that  it  is  better  that  ninety- 
nine  guilty  persons  should  escape,  than  that  one  innocent  man 
should  suffer."  If  this  rule  be  not  taken  as  a  mere  flourish 
and  show  of  humanity,  which  the  law  does  not  feel  and  will 
not  pratice  on,  then  it  establishes  a  proportion  of  chances 
against  ascertaining  the  motives  of  action  from  the  accompa- 
nying circumstances  which  will  substantially  abrogate  all  cap- 
ital punishments.  For  who  that  knows  any  thing  of  human 
nature,  who  that  has  observed  with  even  a  careless  eye,  the 
many  devices  by  which  villainy  cloaks  and  conceals  its  pur- 
poses and  motives,  can  believe  that  they  are  ascertainable  by 
evidence  in  ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred  cases  ?  They  may 
be  in  a  majority,  even  in  a  large  majority  of  cases,  but  to  say 
they  are  in  so  large  a  proportion,  is  imposing  an  excessive  tax 
on  the  credulity  of  mankind. 

It  is  true  that  this  want  of  certainty  applies  to  every  grade 
of  offence,  and  might  be  urged  against  every  degree  of  crimin- 
al punishment.  The  argument  predecated  on  it  is  intended, 
however,  to  be  applied  only  in  favor  of  human  life,  and  in 
every  other  case  it  loses  its  efficacy ;  because  society  may  fine 
and  imprison  its  members,  she  may  brand  with  infamy,  or  for- 
ever disfranchise  them,  on  presumptions  which  their  own  follies 
or  misfortunes  have  created.  These  punishments  are  all  con- 
fined to  their  short  stay  and  pilgrimage  on  earth,  and  whether 
rightfully  or  wrongfully  inflicted,  is  of  little  consequence  in  the 
view  of  that  endless  existence  which  awaits  them  after  death. 
But  as  she  gave  not  our  lives  and  can  never  restore  them,  on 
discovering  an  error  in  her  judgment,  and  as  its  consequences 
are  not  confined  to  the  body  nor  to  time,  but  may  run  on  through 
eternity,  in  the  ceaseless  agony  of  the  soul,  nothing  short  of 
the  most  absolute  certainty  of  the  most  depraved  and  wicked 
purpose  of  heart  could  justify  her  in  pronouncing  the  sentence 
of  death.  Such,  certainly,  never  has  been,  and  never  can  be, 
attained  on  earth  by  uninspired  mortals,  and  should  only  be 
looked  for  in  heaven,  where  He  sits   in  judgment,  who  alone 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  589 

"  can   search  the  hearts,  and  try  the  reins  of  the  children  of 


SOME    OBJECTIONS    TO    THE    LEGISLATIVE    DEPARTMENT. 

It  often  happens  that  the  declared  will  of  the  legislature  is 
totally  different  from  its  real  one,  at  the  time  of  its  enactment. 
This  induces  judges  to  depart  from  the  strict  letter  of  the 
statute,  and  to  resort  to  constructions  not  always  correct,  and 
often  highly  prejudicial  to  the  accused.  The  vague,  and  some- 
times unintelligible  language  employed  in  the  penal  statutes, 
and  the  discordant  opinions  of  elementary  writers,  gave  a  color 
of  necessity  to  this  species  of  judicial  legislation.  The  statute 
gavk  the  text,  and  the  judges  wrote  the  commentary  in  letters 
of  blood.  The  English  nation  have  submitted  to  the  legisla- 
tion of  its  courts,  and  seen  their  fellow  subjects  hanged  for 
constructive  felonies,  quartered  for  constructive  treasons,  and 
roasted  alive  for  constructive  heresies,  with  a  patience  that 
would  be  astonishing  even  if  their  written  laws  had  sanctioned 
butchery.*  In  the  different  States  of  the  American  confed- 
eracy, the  enactment  of  ex  post  facto  laws  has  been  expressly 
forbidden  by  Constitutional  prohibitions.  Yet  the  evil  we  now 
complain  of  is  only  half  remedied,  since  the  first  constructive 
extension  of  a  penal  statute,  beyond  its  letter,  is  an  ex  post 
facto  law,  as  it  regards  the  offence  to  which  it  is  applied. — 
Thus,  what  is  prohibited  in  the  legislature,  is  allowed  of  in  the 
courts,  and  every  day  submitted  to  by  the  American  people. 
This  illegal  assumption  of  legislative  powers  is  referred  to,  not 
so  much  for  the  purpose  of  condemnation  under  the  present 
state  of  things,  as  to  show  that  the  legislature  itself, — the  high 
source  of  that  high  law,  which  is  to  be  the  rule  of  every  man's 
actions, — is  a  very  imperfect  and  fallible  body.  Their  laws  are 
sometimes  so  obscure  that  they  cannot  be  understood  by  the 
judges  themselves,  much  less  by  the  plain  unlettered  yeomanry 
of  the  land. 

Who  would  expect  to  find,  under  the  name  of  treason,  a 
law  punishing  with  death  the  crime  of  counterfeiting  !  Yet 
the  coining  of  silver  is,  by  the  English  law,  dignified  with  that 
appellation,  which  properly  means  nothing  less  than  a  conspi- 

*Livingston'a  Report. 


590  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

racy  against  the  life  or  honor  of  the  king,  and  the  safety  of 
the  State !  Under  the  pompous  title, — this  nicknamed  trea- 
son,— it  obtained  an  easy  passage  through  Parliament,  and 
soon  afterward  a  poor  servant  girl,  just  turned  of  fourteen,  was 
sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive.  At  her  master's  bidding  she  hid 
some  white-washed  farthings  behind  her  stays,  on  which  the 
jury,  yielding,  no  doubt,  to  the  charge  of  the  court,  found  her 
guilty  as  an  accomplice  with  her  master  in  the  treason. — "  Good 
God,  Sir!"  exclaimed  an  eloquent  and  humane  member  of  Par- 
liament, "  are  we  taught  to  execrate  the  fires  of  Smithfield,  and 
are  we  lighting  them  now  to  burn  a  poor  harmless  child  for 
hiding  a  wmite  washed  farthing?" 

When  a  member  of  a  legislative  body  introduces  a  new 
hanging  law,  he  begins  with  mentioning  some  injury  or  crime, 
for  which  a  man  is  not  yet  liable  to  be  hanged  ;  and  then  pro- 
poses the  gallows  as  the  specific  and  infallible  means  of  cure 
and  prevention.  But  the  bill,  in  progress  of  time,  from  care- 
lessness in  dictation,  or  want  of  ability  in  the  draftsman,  makes 
crimes  capital  that  scarce  deserve  whipping.  For  instance, 
the  shop-lifting  act  was  to  prevent  bankers  and  silver-smiths, 
and  other  shops,  where  there  are  commonly  goods  of  great  val- 
ue, from  being  robbed  ;  but  it  goes  so  far  as  to  make  it  death 
to  lift  anything  off  the  counter  with  intent  to  steal. 

Under  this  act,  one  Mary  Jones  wras  executed,  whose  case  I 
shall  just  mention :  It  was  at  a  time,  when  press- warrants 
were  issued  on  the  alarm  about  the  Falkland  Islands.  The 
woman's  husband  was  pressed,  their  goods  seized  for  some 
debts  of  his,  and  she  with  two  small  children  turned  into  the 
streets  a-begging.  It  is  a  circumstance  not  to  be  forgotten, 
that  she  was  very  young  (under  nineteen)  and  remarkably  hand- 
some. She  went  to  a  linen  draper's  shop,  took  some  coarse 
linen  off  the  counter  and  slipped  it  under  her  cloak;  the  shop- 
man saw  her  and  she  laid  it  down.  For  this  she  was  hanged. 
Her  defence  was,  that  she  had  lived  in  credit,  and  wanted  for 
nothing  until  a  press-gang  came,  and  stole  her  husband  from 
her  ;  but  since  then,  she  had  no  tfe|tto  lie  on ;  nothing  to  give 
her  children  to  eat,  and  they  were  almost  naked;  and  perhaps 
she  might  have  done  something  wrong,  for  she  hardly  knew 
what  she  did.     The  parish  officers  testified  the  truth  of  this 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  591 

story ;  but  it  seems  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  shop-lifting 
about  Ludgate  ;  an  example  was  thought  necessary,  and  this 
woman  was  hanged  for  the  comfort  and  satisfaction  of  shop- 
keepers in  Ludgate  street.  When  brought  to  receive  sentence, 
she  behaved  in  such  a  frantic  manner,  as  proved  her  mind  to 
be  in  a  distracted  and  desponding  state,  and  the  child  was 
sucking  at  her  breast  when  she  set  out  for  Tyburn. 

Let  us  reflect  a  little  on  this  woman's  fate.  For  what  cause 
was  God's  creation  robbed  of  this,  its  noblest  work?  It  was 
for  no  injury,  but  for  a  mere  attempt  to  clothe  her  two  naked 
children,  by  unlawful  means.  Compare  this  with  what  the 
State  did,  and  with  what  the  law  did.  The  State  bereaved  the 
woman  of  her  husband,  and  the  children  of  a  father  who  was 
all  their  support.  The  law  deprived  the  woman  of  her  life,  and 
the  children  of  their  remaining  parent,  exposing  them  to  every 
danger,  insult  and  merciless  treatment,  that  destitute  and  help- 
less orphans  suffer.  Take  all  the  circumstances  together,  I  do 
not  believe  a  fouler  murder  was  ever  committed  against  law, 
than  the  murder  of  this  woman  by  law.  Some,  perhaps,  are 
blaming  the  judges,  the  jury,  and  the  hangman,  but  neither 
judge,  jury,  or  hangman  are  to  blame  ;  they  are  but  ministerial 
agents;  the  true  hangman  is  your  member  of  Parliament;  he 
who  frames  the  bloody  law,  is  answerable  for  all  the  blood  that 
is  shed  under  it.* 

"We  have  given  these  two  instances  as  fair  samples  of  that 
careless  and  ambiguous  legislation  which  often  leads  to  results 
which  humanity  and  justice  must  long  deplore.  Such  legisla- 
tion often  wars  against  the  first  principles  of  our  nature,  and 
demands  an  obedience,  under  the  penalty  of  death,  which  it 
were  worse  than  the  most  cruel  death  to  render.  Take  the  law 
of  accessories  after  the  fact  as  an  illustration.  If  the  father 
commit  treason,  the  son  must  abandon  or  deliver  him  up  to  the 
executioner.  If  the  son  be  guilty  of  a  crime,  the  stern  dic- 
tates of  our  law  require  that  his  parent — the  very  mother  who 
bore  him — his  sisters  and  brothers,  the  companions  of  his  infan- 
cy, should  expel  nature  from  their  hearts,  and  humanity  from 
their  feelings — that  they  should  barbarously   discover  his  re- 

l  *Sir  William  Meredith's  speech  in  Parliament  on  frequent  executions. 
39 


m 


592  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

treat,  or  with  inhuman  apathy  abandon  him  to  his  fate.  The 
husband  is  even  required  to  betray  his  wife,  the  mother  of  his 
children  ;  every  tie  of  nature  or  affection  is  to  be  broken,  and 
men  are  required  to  be  faithless,  treacherous,  unnatural  and 
cruel,  in  order  to  prove  that  they  are  good  citizens  and  worthy 
members  of  society  !*  Now  a  Legislature  that  could  have  first 
required  such  things  from  its  subjects,  should  hardly  be  consid- 
ered a  safe  depository  of  the  lives  of  its  people.  And  when 
we  reflect  how  many  Parliaments  in  England,  and  how  many 
Legislatures  in  America,  have  met  and  adjourned  without  an 
attempt  to  eradicate  such  unnatural  principles  from  the  law, 
conviction  becomes  riveted  on  the  mind,  that  human  legisla- 
tion is  so  incautious  and  negligent  that  it  should  never  extend 
to  the  extinction  of  human  life. 


CAPITAL      PUNISHMENTS      NOT      THE    MOST      EFFECTUAL     IN     DETERRING 
OTHERS    FROM    THE    COMMISSION    OF    CRIME. 

Criminal  jurisprudence,  for  several  ages  at  least,  has  been 
very  far  in  the  rear  of  public  opinion.  The  use  of  torture,  the 
trial  by  battle,  the  drowning  of  witches,  and  burning  of  heretics, 
was  never  abolished  in  England  until  long  after  public  senti- 
ment had  denounced  such  cruel  spectacles.  The  Inquisition 
struggled  hard,  and  down  to  our  times,  succeeded  in  maintain- 
ing its  fires  and  its  faggots,  in  despite  of  the  maledictions  of 
nearly  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  older  States  of  the  Union 
could,  no  doubt,  furnish  many  examples  illustrating  the  justice 
of  the  remark. 

If,  however,  criminal  legislation  does  not  adapt  itself  imme- 
diately to  the  general  state  of  public  sentiment,  the  consequence 
is  that  the  various  officers  of  the  law  become  less  vigilant  in 
the  detection  of  offenders,  and  the  ministers  of  justice  resort  to 
every  subtelty  and  refinement  to  screen  them  from  a  punish- 
ment disproportioned  to  their  crimes.  This  may  not  be  true  of 
all  the  officers  and  ministers  of  the  law,  especially  of  judges, 
who  for  many  years  before  their  advancement  to  the  bench, 
may  have  been  Attorney  Generals,  or  prosecuting  counsel  for 
the  State  ;  but  experience   and  observation  have  every  where 


♦Livingston's  Report. 

n  ; 
i 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  593 

shown  its  correctness  as  to  jurors,  who  are  taken  from  the  gen- 
eral mass  of  mankind,  and  who  feel  more  strongly  the  prevail- 
ing current  of  humanity  and  mercy. 

This  is  believed  to  be  the  true  reason,  why  so  many  offend- 
ers, whose  punishment,  on  conviction,  would  be  death,  so  often 
escape.  It  is  not  the  money  of  the  accused  that  bribes,  nor 
the  number  and  power  of  his  friends  that  overawe,  nor  the 
skill  and  eloquence  of  his  counsel  that  seduce  public  justice 
from  her  straight  and  onward  course.  No  ;  it  is  none  of  these 
things.  It  is  the  gentle  voice  of  humanity,  whispering  in  the 
ears  of  the  jurors,  "this  man's  life  is  not  lawfully  in  your  pow- 
er; take  it  not  away  lest  Heaven  should  demand  it  at  your 
hands." 

These  appeals  to  the  softer  and  better  parts  of  our  nature 
often  operate  as  a  virtual  repeal  of  those  bloody  statutes 
whose  places  are  retained  in  the  criminal  code  long  after  pub- 
lic opinion  will  not  allow  them  to  be  enforced.  Because  the 
law-making  power  will  not  expressly  substitute  a  milder  pun- 
ishment, such  repeals  result  in  the  entire  acquittal  of  many 
offenders,  who,  though  they  deserve  not  to  die,  ought  neverthe- 
less to  be  compelled  to  make  severe  atonement  for  their  crimes. 
Many  are  thrown  back  to  commit  new  ravages  on  society,  who 
should  have  been  forever  shut  out  from  its  enjoyments,  and 
compelled  to  hard  labor,  for  their  own,  or  their  family's,  or 
their  country's  support.  But,  by  insisting  on  the  security  of 
the  grave,  society  often  loses  even  the  protection  of  the 
prison. 

Suppose,  however,  capital  convictions,  effected  without  cor- 
ruption in  the  witnesses,  without  mistakes  in  the  jury,  and 
without  errors  committed  by  the  court ;  what  effects  do  they 
produce,  which  do  not  equally  result  from  perpetual  slavery? 
A  punishment,  to  be  just,  should  have  that  degree  of  severity- 
only,  which  is  sufficient  to  deter  others.  Now,  there  is  no  man 
who  would,  on  the  least  reflection,  put  in  competition  the  total 
and  perpetual  loss  of  liberty,  with  the  greatest  advantage  he 
could  possibly  obtain  in  consequence  of  a  crime.  Perpetual 
slavery,  then,  has  in  it  all  that  is  necessary  to  deter  the  most 
hardened  and  determined,  as  much  as  the  punishment  of  death. 
I  say  it  has  more.     There  are  many  who  can  look  upon  death 


594  MISCELLANEOUS   DOCUMENTS. 

with  intrepidity  and  firmness ;  some,  through  fanaticism,  others 
through  vanity  that  attends  us  even  to  the  grave ;  others,  from 
a  desperate  resolution,  either  to  get  rid  of  their  misery  or  to 
cease  to  live  ;  but  fanaticism  and  vanity  forsake  the  criminal  in 
slavery,  in  chains  and  fetters,  in  an  iron  cage,  and  despair 
seems  rather  the  beginning  than  the  end  of  their  misery.  The 
mind,  by  collecting  itself  and  uniting  all  its  force,  can,  for  a 
moment,  repel  assailing  grief;  but  its  most  vigorous  efforts  are 
insufficient  to  resist  perpetual  wretchedness.* 

If  we  look  to  the  executions  themselves,  what  examples  do 
they  give  ?  The  offender  dies  either  hardened  or  penitent. 
We  are  not  to  consider  what  reflections  occur  to  reasonable  or 
good  men,  but  such  impressions  as  are  made  on  the  thought- 
less, the  desperate  and  the  wicked.  These  men  look  on  the 
hardened  villain  with  envy  and  admiration.  All  that  anima- 
tion and  contempt  of  death,  with  which  heroes  and  martyrs 
inspire  good  men,  the  abandoned  villain  feels,  in  seeing  a  des- 
perado like  himself,  meet  death  with  intrepidity.  The  penitent 
criminal,  on  the  other  hand,  often  makes  the  sober  villain  think 
in  this  way :  himself  oppressed  with  poverty  and  want,  he 
sees  a  man  die  with  that  penitence,  which  promises  pardon  for 
his  sins  here,  and  happiness  hereafter ;  straight,  he  thinks,  that 
by  robbery,  forgery  and  murder,  he  can  relieve  all  his  wants, 
and  if  he  be  brought  so  to  justice,  the  punishment  will  be  short 
and  trifling,  and  the  reward  eternal.  When  once  a  villain 
turns  enthusiast,  he  is  above  all  law;  punishment  is  his  reward, 
and  death  his  glory .f 

If  the  hanging  of  a  fellow  being  produce  no  good  effect  on 
the  profligate  and  abandoned,  what  impression  does  it  make  on 
the  minds  of  the  virtuous  and  orderly  part  of  the  community? 
From  some  motive,  which  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to  specify  or 
define,  great  crowds  will  always  assemble  to  witness  the  terri- 
ble and  solemn  spectacle.  At  the  appointed  hour,  the  con- 
demned victim,  seated  on  his  coffin,  and  surrounded  by  the 
swords  and  spears  of  the  guard,  is  seen  approaching  on  the 
slow-moving  car  of  death  :  he  is  carried  forward  in  this  condi- 

, ■» 

*Sir  William  Meredith's  Speech  in  Parliament.  1777^ 
fBeccaria. 


ON  CAPITxVL  PUNISHMENT.  595 

tion,  through  the  immense  assembly,  until  he  reaches  the  scaf- 
fold. Here,  standing  on  that  narrow  isthmus,  which  separates 
time  from  eternity,  he  makes  his  last  and  solemn  appeal  to  the 
world  !  He  either  denies  his  guilt  altogether,  or  extenuates 
his  crime  by  referring  it  to  misfortune,  or  to  the  vicious  exam- 
ple and  education  of  his  youth.  He  next  implores  the  world  to 
do  justice  to  his  memory — pronounces  the  forgiveness  of  his 
enemies — drops  on  his  knees  in  prayer,  and  calls  on  all  the 
holy  ministers  of  God  to  lift  up  their  last  supplication  to  Heav- 
en in  his  behalf !  Oh,  at  that  awful  moment,  who  would  not 
wish,  nay,  who  would  not  rejoice  to  see  the  sword  of  destruc- 
tion turned  aside,  and  the  angel  of  mercy  overshadowing  the 
trembling  and  supplicating  victim  !  But,  no.  He  must  die — 
the  last  act  of  devotion  must  be  interrupted — the  rude  grasp 
of  the  hangman  tells  "  his  hour  has  come."  His  supplicating 
look  implores  but  a  few  moments  more  to  fit  him  for  the  dread- 
ful change  ;  but  it  is  in  vain.  He  bows  his  head  to  the  halter, 
and,  soon  hangs  a  lifeless  corpse  in  the  midst  of  a  sympa- 
thising and  sobbing  multitude !  Let  me  here  ask  again,  how 
so  sad  and  mournful  a  spectacle  as  this  can  ever  magnify  the 
law  or  make  it  honorable  ?  Who,  in  fact,  then  thinks  of  the 
law  but  to  execrate  it,  or  deplore  its  hard  and  barbarous  re- 
quirments. 

If  the  asseverations  of  his  innocence  should  obtain  credence 
with  the  public,  or  if  it  should  subsequently  appear  that  false 
testimony,  the  passions  of  the  moment,  or  deceiving  appear- 
ances had  effected  his  conviction,  what,  then,  would  not  the 
judge  who  tried,  the  jury  who  rendered  the  verdict,  and  the 
whole  community,  who  saw  or  heard  his  tragical  end,  what 
would  they  not  all  give  to  have  it  in  their  power  to  restore  him 
to  life  ?  Instances  like  these^are  of  frequent  occurrence.  The 
most  authentic  English  records  are  full  of  them;  many  have 
occurred  in  the  United  States,  in  which  the  innocence  of  the 
sufferers  has  been  clearly  demonstrated.  A  few  of  such  cases 
do  infinitely  more  harm  to  the  generation  in  which  they  occur, 
than  the  example  of  the  other  capital  executions  can  compen- 
sate. They  are  remembered  when  all  the  instances  of  com- 
mon cases  are  forgotten.  They  go  down  the  stream  of  tradi- 
tion.    The  old,  in  whose  day  they  occurred,  relate  them  to 


596  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

their 'children  and  grand  children,  until  all  the  feelings  of  na- 
ture are  arrayed  against  the  laws  of  the  country  and  those 
who  administered  them. 

Society,  by  punishing  the  higher  offences  only  with  death, 
has  retained  it  in  many  of  those  very  cases  to  which  it  is  the 
least  appropriate,  and,  therefore,  the  least  efficacious  in  prevent- 
ing them.  The  traitor  is  prompted  by  ambition  to  overturn 
the  liberties  of  his  country.  Will  the  fear  of  death  drive  the 
big  passion  back  into  his  bosom,  or  arrest  his  progress  in  the 
moment  of  expected  triumph  ?  If  so,  why  did  an  Arnold  go 
over  to  the  enemy,  or  a  Burr  seek  to  dismember  our  Union  ? 
Could  the  one  have  been  commander  in  chief  of  our  armies, 
and  the  other  the  President  of  the  republic — they  would  not 
now  "  be  damned  to  everlasting  fame"  as  the  only  recreants,  in 
half  a  century,  to  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the  new  world. 
Such  men  cannot  submit  to  the  restraints  of  society.  Compel 
them  to  undergo  the  confinements  of  a  prison ;  from  the  expec- 
tation of  filling  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  with  Princes  and 
nobles  in  attendance,  bring  them  down  to  the  humble  vassals 
of  the  turnkey  that  nightly  locks  them  within  their  solitary 
cells.  Perpetual  degradation  like  this,  would  do  more  toward 
suppressing  their  high  and  vaulting  spirits,  than  the  fear  of 
death,  "  which  men  always  behold  in  distant  obscurity." 

How  can  the  fear  of  death  be  efficacious  in  preventing  mur- 
der by  duelling  ?  Has  not  the  culprit  braved  death  even  in 
the  very  act  of  committing  his  offence  ?  Why  then  expect 
him  to  dread  it  at  the  end  of  a  rope,  who  feared  it  not  at  the 
mouth  of  the  pistol !  Such  modern  barbarians  risk  their  lives, 
"  that  they  may  keep  their  places  in  society."  Counteract  their 
vain  expectations,  by  compelling  them  to  take  their  places  out 
of  society — force  them  to  exchange  their  pistols  for  the  sledge 
hammer,  and  their  small  swords  for  the  pegging  awl,  and  you 
will  have  done  more  towards  preserving  the  lives  of  our  Deca- 
turs  and  Hamiltons,  than  all  the  gibbets  ever  erected  in  Ameri- 
ca. There  is  another  crime  which  the  sentiments  of  mankind 
more  universally  require  should  be  capitally  punished  than 
any  other;  but  even  this  is  prompted  by  brutal  passions  which 
are  proverbially  regardless  of  consequences,  and  whose  repe- 
tition can  be  guarded  against  by  amputation,  as  effectually  as 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  597 

by  calling  in  the  aid  of  that  universal  specific,  death.  The 
surgeon,  and  not  the  executioner,  is  all  that  society  needs  in 
this  case ;  but  a  decent  respect  to  the  feelings  of  those  who 
have  been  outraged,  and  a  proper  regard  to  the  example  on 
others,  require  a  perpetual  exclusion  from  the  walks  of  civil- 
ized life — a  subjection  to  the  coarse  diet,  the  hard  lodging,  and 
the  incessant  labor  of  imprisonment  for  life. 


THE  SAME  SUBJECT  CONTINUED. 

If  to  reasoning,  such  as  we  have  resorted  to,  be  added,  the 
recorded  testimony  of  competent  witnesses,  whose  situation 
enables  them  to  make  correct  observations,  but  little  doubt  can 
remain  as  to  the  inerricacy  of  capital  punishment.  In  England 
a  great  portion  of  the  eloquence  and  learning,  and  all  the  hu- 
manity of  the  age,  are  at  work  in  an  endeavor  to  restrict  the 
punishment  of  death  to  the  more  atrocious  offences.  This 
has  produced  a  parliamentary  enquiry,  in  the  course  of  which 
the  examination  of  witnesses  was  taken  before  a  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  We  make  the  following  extract 
from  the  testimony  of  a  solicitor  who  had  practiced  for  more 
than  twenty  years  in  the  criminal  courts  :  "  In  the  course  of 
my  practice,  I  have  found  that  the  punishment  of  death  has  no 
terror  on  a  common  thief — indeed,  it  is  much  more  the  sub- 
ject of  ridicule  among  them  than  of  serious  deliberation.  The 
certain  approach  of  an  ignominious  death  does  not  seem  to 
operate  upon  them;  for  after  the  warrant  has  come  down, 
I  have  seen  them  treat  it  with  levity.  I  once  saw  a  man  for 
whom  I  had  been  concerned  the  day  before  his  execution,  and, 
on  offering  him  condolence,  and  expressing  my  concern  at  his  sit- 
uation, he  replied  with  an  air  of  indifference, '  players  at  bowls 
must  expect  rubbers;' — and  this  man  I  heard  say,  '  that  it  was 
only  a  few  minutes — a  kick  and  a  struggle,  and  all  was  over.' 
The  fate  of  one  set  of  culprits,  in  some  instances,  had  no  effect, 
even  on  those  who  were  to  be  next  reported  for  execution  : 
they  play  at  ball,  and  pass  their  jokes  as  if  nothing  was  the 
matter.  I  have  seen  the  last  separation  of  persons  about  to 
be  executed  :  there  was  nothing  of  solemnity  about  it,  and  it 
was  more  like  the  parting  for  a  country  journey  than  taking 
their  last  farewell.     I  mention  these  things  to  show  what  little 


,* 


598  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS . 

fear  common  thieves  entertain  of  capital  punishments ;  and 
that,  so  far  from  being  arrested  in  their  wicked  courses,  by  the 
distant  possibility  of  its  infliction,  they  are  not  even  intimidat- 
ed by  its  certainty." 

The  ordinary  of  Newgate,  a  witness  better  qualified  than 
any  other  to  give  information  on  this  subject,  being  asked— 
"  have  you  made  any  observations  as  to  the  effect  of  the  sen- 
tence of  death  upon  the  prisoners?"  answers:  "it  seems 
scarcely  to  have  any  effect  upon  them  ;  the  generality  of  peo- 
ple under  sentence  of  death  are  thinking,  or  rather  doing  any 
thing  than  preparing  for  their  latter  end."  Being  interrogated 
as  to  the  effects  produced  on  the  minds  of  the  people  by  capi- 
tal executions,  he  answers  :  "  I  think  shock  and  horror  at  the 
moment,  upon  the  inexperienced  and  young,  but  immediately 
after  the  scene  is  closed,  forgetfulness  altogether  of  it,  leaving 
no  impression  on  the  young  and  inexperienced.  The  old  and 
experienced  thief  says,  the  chances  have  gone  against  the  man 
who  has  suffered,  that  it  is  of  no  consequence,  that  it  was 
what  was  to  be  expected;  making  no  serious  impression  upon 
the  mind.  I  have  had  occasion  to  go  into  the  press-yard  with- 
in an  hour  and  a  half  after  an  execution,  and  I  have  found 
them  amusing  themselves,  playing  at  ball  or  marbles,  and  ap- 
pearing precisely  as  if  nothing  had  happened." 

Another  of  these  respectable  witnesses  (a  magistrate  of  the 
capital)  being  asked  whether  he  thought  that  capital  punish- 
ments had  much  tendency  to  deter  criminals  from  the  commis- 
sion of  offences,  answered :  "  I  do  not ;  T  believe  it  is  well 
known  to  those  who  are  conversant  with  criminal  associations 
in  this  town,  that  criminals  live  and  act  in  gangs  and  confede- 
racies, and  that  the  execution  of  one  or  more  of  their  body,  sel- 
dom has  a  tendency  to  dissolve  the  confederacy,  or  to  deter  the 
remaining  associates  from  the  continuance  of  their  former  pur- 
suits." 

No  coloring  is  necessary  to  heighten  the  effect  of  these 
sketches.  Nothing,  it  appears  to  us,  can  more  fully  prove  the 
utter  inutility  of  this  waste  of  human  life,  its  utter  inefficiency 
as  a  punishment,  and  its  demoralizing  operation  on  the  minds 
of  the  people. 

In  London  and  Middlesex,  for  sixteen  years,  ending  in  1818, 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  599 

thirty-five  persons  were  convicted  of  murder,  and  stabbing  with 
intent  to  murder,  which  is  an  average  of  a  fraction  more  than 
two  in  the  year.  In  the  city  of  New  Orleans  seven  persons 
suffered  for  the  same  crime  in  the  space  of  four  years,  which 
is  very  little  less  than  the  same  average  ;  but  the  population  of 
New  Orleans,  during  the  period,  did  not  amount  to  more  than 
about  thirty-five  thousand,  which  is,  to^hat  of  Middlesex  and 
London,  in  round  numbers,  as  one  to  twenty-seven;  therefore, 
the  crime  of  murder  was  nearly  twenty- seven  times  as  frequent 
in  proportion  to  numbers  as  in  London.  Almost  the  same 
proportion  exists  between  the  whole  State,  and  England  and 
Wales,  in  relation  to  this  crime ;  nineteen  executions  having 
taken  place  for  murder  in  the  last  seven  years  in  Louisiana; 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  during  the  seven  years  ending  in 
1818,  in  England  and  Wales.  In  London  and  Middlesex, 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-five  persons  were  convicted  for  forgery 
and  counterfeiting,  in  seven  years,  ending  in  1818.  During  an 
equal  period  seven  persons  were  convicted  of  the  same  offences 
in  the  whole  State,  which  makes  the  crime  eighteen  times 
more  frequent  there,  in  proportion  to  numbers,  than  it  is  here. 
Six  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventy-four  convictions  for 
larceny  took  place  in  the  same  period  in  London,  and  for  the 
like  period  in  Louisiana,  one  hundred ;  which  is  near  ten  to 
one  more  there  than  here,  in  proportion  to  the  population.  I 
well  know  that  the  state  of  society  in  the  two  countries — the 
degree  of  temptation — the  ease  or  difficulty  of  obtaining  sub- 
sistence and  other  circumstances,  as  well  as  the  operation  of 
laws,  may  produce  the  difference  I  have  shown;  but  does  it  not 
raise  serious  doubts  as  to  the  efficacy  of  capital  punishments, 
to  observe  this  double  effect,  that  almost  the  only  crime  which 
we  punish  in  that  manner,  is  more  frequent  in  proportion  of 
twenty- seven  to  one,  whilst  those  which  are  the  object  of  a 
milder  sanction,  are  almost  in  the  same  ratio  less  than  the 
country  with  which  we  make  the  comparison. 

The  laws  of  none  of  the  States  punish  highway  robbery  with 
death.  Those  of  the  United  States  affix  this  punishment  to 
the  robbery  of  the  mail,  under  the  circumstances  that  gener- 
ally accompany  it.  Yet  it  is  believed  that  this  last  species  of 
highway  robbery  is  more  frequent    than    the  other — another 


m- 


600  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

proof  that  the  fear  of  death  is  not  a  more  powerful  preventive 
of  crime  than  other  punishments.* 

The  experience  of  almost  every  civilized  nation  ought  to 
settle  this  question.  Great  Britain  is  said  to  have  reduced  the 
number  of  her  capital  offences  from  about  two  hundred  to 
something  like  twenty — and  no  respectable  writer  which  I  have 
met  with,  has  ever  pretended  that  those  offences,  the  punish- 
ment of  which  had  been  ameliorated,  had  become  more  fre- 
quent or  alarming  to  society.  If  abolishing  the  punishment  of 
death  in  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  or  eighty  cases  out  of 
two  hundred  has  not  had  such  an  effect,  what  reason  can  there 
be  for  believing  it  would  do  so  as  to  the  remaining  twenty  ? 
The  experiments  made  in  the  United  States  clearly  show, 
that  the  number  may  be  greatly  reduced  below  twenty,  without 
injury  to  society.  Here,  the  general,  if  not  universal  senti- 
ment prevails,  that  the  punishment  of  death  should  be  confined 
to  treason,  murder  and  rape — and  in  but  few  of  the  States  is  it 
extended  beyond  these  offences  on  the  first  conviction.  In 
some  States,  however,  arson,  counterfeiting  money,  kidnapping, 
&c,  are  so  punished..  We  submit  it  as  a  general  remark, 
that  the  number  of  offences  punished  by  death,  in  the  United 
States,  averaging  all  the  States  of  the  Union,  would  not  exceed 
Dne-third  of  the  number  punished  capitally  in  England.  Why 
then  should  either  nation,  after  running  this  race  of  humanity 
together,  stop  short  of  that  goal  which  alone  is  worth  contend- 
ing for — universal  abrogation  of  the  punishment  of  death? 
Why  should  either  stop  in  this  great  work  of  reformation,  when 
all  the  experiments  they  have  made  in  the  smaller  offences 
give  promise  of  complete  and  triumphant  success  ?  The  ex- 
ample of  other  nations,  who  have  made  the  experiment,  invite 
them  to  its  completion.  In  republican  Rome,  for  the  long  pe- 
riod of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  before  her  institutions 
were  swept  away  by  the  imperial  power,  it  was  not  lawful  to 
put  a  Roman  citizen  to  death.  And  the  historian  has  never 
asserted  that  crimes  were  multiplied  by  it  during  that  time. 
In  Russia,  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  for  twenty  years,  abolished 
the  punishment,  and  her  successor,  Catharine  the  Second,  under 


♦Livingston's Report  to  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana. 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  601 

a  full  persuasion  of  its  being  useless,  also  gave  orders  to  those 
who  were  about  to  frame  a  new  code  of  laws  for  her  empire, 
to  abolish  it  altogether.  About  the  same  time  (probably  a  few 
years  after)  that  Elizabeth  made  her  experiment  in  the  north, 
the  Duke  of  Tuscany  renewed  it  in  the  south;  and  after  trying 
it  for  twenty  years,  no  doubt  watching  its  effects  with  the  most 
vigilant  eye,  he  declares,  "  that  atrocious  offences  had  become 
very  rare,  and  the  lesser  ones  greatly  diminished."  It  is  said 
that,  during  those  twenty  years,  only  five  murders  were  com- 
mitted within  his  dominions ;  whilst  in  Rome,  whose  inhabit- 
ants have  the  same  manners,  principles  and  religion  with  those 
of  Tuscany,  the  number  would  amount  to  many  hundreds. 
The  abolition  of  death  alone  as  a  punishment  for  murder,  pro- 
duced this  difference  in  the  moral  character  of  the  two  na- 
tions.* 


mr.  Livingston's  refutation  of  the  usual   arguments  urged 
against  abolishing  the  punishment  of  death. 

Let  us  examine  those  reasons  which  are  usually  given  on 
the  affirmative  side  of  this  interesting  question  : 

First.  There  are  those  who  support  it  by  argument  drawn 
from  religion.  The  divine  spirit  infused  into  the  great  legis- 
lator of  the  Jews,  from  whose  code  these  arguments  are  drawn, 
was  never  intended  to  inspire  a  system  of  universal  jurispru- 
dence. The  theocracy  given  as  a  form  of  government  to  that 
extraordinary  people,  was  not  suited  to  any  other;  as  little  was 
the  system  of  their  penal  laws  given  on  the  mysterious  moun- 
tain, promulgated  from  the  bosom  of  a  dark  cloud,  amid  thun- 
der and  lightning ;  they  were  intended  to  strike  terror  into  the 
minds  of  a  perverse  and  obdurate  people;  and  as  one  means 
of  effecting  this,  the  punishment  of  death  is  freely  denounced 
for  a  long  list  of  crimes ;  but  the  same  authority  establishes 
the  lex  talionis  and  other  regulations,  which  those  who  quote 
this  authority  would  surely  not  wish  to  adopt.  They  forget  that 
the  same  Almighty  author  of  that  law,  at  a  later  period,  in-# 
spired  one  of  his  prophets  with  a  solemn  assurance,  and  af- 
firmed it  with  an  awful  asservation, — u  as  I  live  saith  the  Lord, 

*Rush's  Essays. 


602  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he 
should  turn  from  his  wickedness  and  live."  They  forget,  too, 
although  they  are  Christians  who  use  this  argument,  that  the 
divine  author  of  their  religion  expressly  forbids  the  retaliatory 
system,  on  which  the  punishment  of  death  for  murder  is 
founded;  they  forget  the  mild  benevolence  of  his  precepts,  the 
meekness  of  his  spirit,  the  philanthropy  that  breathes  in  all 
his  words  and  directed  all  his  actions ;  they  loose  sight  of  that 
golden  rule,  which  he  established,  "to  do  nothing  to  others, 
that  we  would  not  desire  them  to  do  unto  us  ;"  and  certainly 
pervert  the  spirit  of  his  holy  and  merciful  religion,  when  they 
give  it  as  a  sanction  for  sanguinary  punishments.  Indeed,  if 
I  were  inclined  to  support  my  opinion  by  arguments  drawn 
from  religion,  the  whple  New  Testament  should  be  my  text, 
and  I  could  easily  deduce  from  it  authority  for  a  system  of 
reform  as  opposed  to  one  of  extirpation. 

Secondly.  The  practice  of  all  nations,  from  the  remotest 
antiquity,  is  urged  in  favor  of  this  punishment ;  the  fact,  with 
some  exceptions,  is  true;  but  is  the  inference  just?  There  are 
general  errors,  and,  unfortunately  for  mankind,  but  few  gen- 
eral truths,  established  by  practice,  in  government  and  legisla- 
tion. Make  this  the  criterion,  and  despotism  is,  by  many 
thousand  degrees,  on  the  scale  of  antiquity,  better  than  a  re- 
presentative government :  the  laws  of  Draco  were  more  an- 
cient than  those  of  Solon,  and  consequently  better ;  and  the 
practice  of  torture  quite  as  generally  diffused,  as  that  of  which 
we  are  now  treating.  Idolatry  in  religion,  tyranny  in  govern- 
ment, capital  punishments  and  inhuman  tortures  in  jurispru- 
dence, are  coeval  and  co-extensive.  Will  the  advocates  of 
this  punishment  admit  the  force  of  their  argument  in  favor  of 
all  these  abuses  ?  If  they  do  not,  how  will  they  apply  it  to  the 
one  for  which  thejr  argue  ? 

The  long  and  general  usage  of  any  institution  gives  us  the 
means  of  examining  its  practical  advantages  or  defects ;  but 
it  ought  to  have  no  authority  as  a  precedent  until  it  be  proved 
that  the  best  laws  are  the  most  ancient,  and  that  institutions 
for  the  happiness  of  the  people  are  the  most  permanent  and 
most  generally  diffused.  But  this,  unfortunately,  cannot  be 
maintained  with  truth;  the  melancholy  reverse  forces   convic- 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  603 

tion  on  our  minds.  Everywhere,  with  but  few  exceptions,  the 
interest  of  the  many  has,  from  the  earliest  ages,  been  sacrificed 
to  the  power  of  the  few.  Everywhere,  penal  laws  have  been 
framed  to  support  this  power,  and  those  institutions,  favorable 
to  freedom,  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  our  ancestors, 
form  no  part  of  any  original  plan ;  but  are  isolated  privileges, 
which  have  been  wrested  from  the  grasp  of  tyranny,  or  which 
have  been  suffered,  from  inattention  to  their  importance,  to 
grow  into  strength. 

Every  nation  in  Europe  has,  during  the  last  eight  or  ten 
centuries,  been  involved  in  a  continued  state  of  internal  dis- 
cord or  foreign  war :  Kings  and  nobles  continually  struggling 
for  power,  both  oppressing  the  people,  and  driving  them  to 
desperation  and  revolt.  Different  pretenders  asserted  their 
claims  to  the  throne  of  deposed  or  assassinated  Kings ;  religious 
wars,  cruel  persecutions,  partition  of  kingdoms,  cessions  of 
provinces,  succeeding  each  other  with  a  complication  and  ra- 
pidity that  defies  the  skill  and  diligence  of  the  historian  to 
unravel  and  record.  Add  to  this  the  ignorance  in  which  the 
human  mind  was  involved  during  the  early  and  middle  part  of 
this  period  ;  the  intolerant  bigotry,  which,  from  its  close  connec- 
tion with  government,  stifled  every  improvement  in  politics,  as 
well  as  every  reformation  in  religion,  and  we  shall  see  a  state 
of  things  certainly  not  favorable  for  the  formation  of  wise 
laws  on  any  subject ;  but  particularly  ill  calculated  for  the  es- 
tablishmeut  of  a  just  or  humane  criminal  code.  From  such 
legislators,  acting  in  such  times,  what  could  be  expected  but 
that  which  we  actually  find — a  mass  of  laws,  unjust,  because 
made  solely  with  a  view  to  support  the  temporary  views  of  a 
prevailing  party ;  unwise,  obscure,  inhuman,  inconsistent,  be- 
cause they  were  the  work  of  ignorance,  dictated  by  interest, 
passion  and  intolerance. ;  But  it  would  scarcely  seem  prudent 
to  surrender  our  reason  to  authorities  thus  established,  and  to 
give  the  force  of  precedent  to  any  of  the  incoherent  collections 
of  absurd,  cruel  and  contradictory  provisions,  which  have  been 
dignified  with  the  name  of  penal  codes,  in  the  jurisprudence 
of  any  nation  of  Europe,  as  their  laws  stood  prior  to  the  last 
century.  JNo  one  would  surely  advise  this;  why  tken  select 
any  part  of  the  mass  and  recommend  it  to  us,  merely  because 


604  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 


?M* 


it  has  generally  been  practiced?  If  there  is  any  other  reason 
for  adopting  it,  let  that  be  urged,  and  it  ought  to  have  its  weight ; 
but  my  object  here  is  to  show,  that  from  the  mode  in  which  the 
penal  laws  of  Europe  have,  until  a  very  late  period,  been  estab- 
lished, very  little  respect  is  due  to  them  merely  on  account 
of  their  antiquity,  or  of  the  extent  to  which  they  have  pre- 
vailed. If  the  criminal  jurisprudence  of  the  modern  and 
middle  ages  affords  us  little  reason  to  revere  either  its  human- 
ity or  justice,  the  ancient  world  does  not  give  us  more.  The 
despotism  of  antiquity  wras  like  that  of  modern  times,  and 
such  as  it  will  always  be ;  it  can  have  but  one  character,  which 
the  rare  occurrence  of  a  few  mild  or  philosophic  monarchs 
does  not  change. 

The  third  and  last  argument  I  have  heard  urged,  is  nearly 
allied  to  the  second ;  it  is,  the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from 
innovation.  I  confess  I  always  listen  to  this  objection  with 
some  degree  of  suspicion.  That  men  who  owe  their  rank,  their 
privileges  and  emoluments,  to  abuses  and  impositions  originat- 
ing in  the  darkness  of  antiquity,  and  consecrated  by  time,  that 
such  men  should  preach  the  danger  of  innovations  I  can  well 
conceive;  the  wonder  is,  that  they  can  find  others  weak  and 
credulous  enough  to  believe  them.  But  in  a  country  where 
these  abuses  do  not  exist ;  a  country  whose  admirable  system 
of  government  is  founded  wholly  on  innovation  ;  where  there  is 
no  antiquity  to  create  a  false  veneration  for  abuses,  and  no 
apparent  interest  to  perpetuate  them;  in  such  a  country  this 
argument  will  have  little  force  against  the  strong  reasons  which 
assail  it.  Let  those,  however,  that  honestly  entertain  this 
doubt,  reflect  that  most  fortunately  for  themselves  and  for  their 
posterity,  they  live  in  an  age  of  advancement :  not  an  art,  not 
a  science,  that  has  not  in  our  day  made  rapid  progress  to- 
ward perfection.  The  one  of  which  we  now  speak  has  received 
and  is  daily  acquiring  improvement.  How  long  is  it  since  tor- 
ture was  abolished  ?  Since  judges  were  made  independent  ? 
Since  personal  liberty  was  secured,  and  religious  persecution 
forbidden  ?  All  these  were,  in  their  time,  innovations  as  bold 
at  least  as  the  one  now  proposed.  The  true  use  of  this  objec- 
tion, and  there  I  confess  it  has  force,  is  to  prevent  any  hazard- 
ous experiment,  or  the  introduction  of  any  change  that  is  not 


i 


ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT.  605  . 

strongly  recommended  by  reason.  I  desire  no  other  test  for  the 
one  that  is  now  under  discussion,  but  I  respectfully  urge,  that 
it  would  be  unwise  to  reject  it  merely  because  it  is  untried,  if 
we  are  convinced  it  will  be  beneficial.  Should  our  expecta- 
tions be  disappointed,  no  extensive  evil  can  be  done  ;  the  re- 
medy is  always  in  our  power.  Although  an  experiment,  it  is 
not  an  hazardous  one,  and  the  only  enquiry  seems  to  be, 
whether  the  arguments  and  facts  stated  in  its  favor  are  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  justify  us  in  making  it.  Indeed,  it  appears  to 
me,  that  the  reasoning  might,  with  some  propriety,  be  retorted 
against  those  who  use  it,  by  saying,  "  all  punishments  are  but 
experiments  to  discover  what  will  best  prevent  crimes  ;  your 
favorite  one  of  death  has  been  fully  tried.  By  your  own  ac- 
count, all  nations,  since  the  first  institution  of  society,  have  - 
practiced  it,  but  yourself  must  acknowledge,  without  success. 
All  we  ask  then  is,  that  you  abandon  an  experiment  which 
has  for  five  or  six  thousand  years  been  progressing  under  all 
the  variety  of  forms  which  cruel  ingenuity  could  invent,  and 
which  in  all  ages,  under  all  governments,  has  been  found 
wanting.  You  have  been  obliged  reluctantly  to  confess  that 
it  is  inefficient,  and  to  abandon  it  in  minor  offences ;  what 
charm  has  it  then,  which  makes  you  cling  to  it  in  those  of  a 
graver  cast?  You  have  made  your  experiment;  it  was  at- 
tended in  its  operation  with  an  incalculable  waste  of  human 
life  ;  a  deplorable  degradation  of  human  intellect ;  it  was  found 
often  fatal  to  the  innocent,  and  it  very  frequently  permitted  the 
guilty  to  escape.  Nor  can  you  complain  of  any  unseasonable 
interferference  with  your  plan,  that  may  account  for  its  failure ; 
during  the  centuries  that  your  system  has  been  in  operation, 
humanity  and  justice  have  never  interrupted  its  conrse ;  you 
went  on  in  the  work  of  destruction,  always  seeing  an  increase 
of  crime,  and  always  supposing  that  increased  severity  was 
the  only  remedy  to  suppress  it ;  the  mere  forfeiture  of  life  was 
too  mild;  tortures  were  superadded,  which  nothing  but  the  in- 
telligence of  a  fiend  could  invent,  to  prolong  its  duration  and 
increase  its  torments ;  yet  there  was  no  diminution  of  crime, 
and  it  never  occurred  to  you,  that  mildness  might  accomplish 
that  which  could  not  be  effected  by  severity."  This  great 
truth  revealed   itself  to  philosophers,  who  imparted  it  to  the 


606  MISCELLANEOUS  DOCUMENTS. 

people;  the  strength  of  popular  opinion  at  length  forced  it  on 
Kings,  and  the  work  of  reformation,  in  spite  of  the  cry  against 
its  novelty,  began.  It  has  been  progressive.  Why  should  it 
stop,  when  every  argument,  every  fact,  promises  its  complete 
success  ?  We  could  not  concur  in  the  early  stages  of  this  re- 
formation ;  perhaps  the  credit  may  be  reserved  to  us  of  com- 
pleting it.* 

*  Livingston's  Report  to  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana. 


* 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK  ON   THE   DATE  DUE.   THE   PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND    TO    $I.OO    ON    THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

APR  19    1944 

MAY    %1  1947 

}*>'Jwtfc,9fej 

P *^fD  ETJ 

flfif  ¥  1  fttfM 

vwi   4q  IW9 

LD  21-100m-7,'40 (6936s) 

r 


*;a \j 


£*3, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


